The Harding - Wheeler Family

Okay, Grace, this blog entry is dedicated to you! And you are featured way at the end!

We are going back to October to start with Molly's first Mercy Ambassador event - the Yellow Rose Auction. She looked adorable and, GASP, worked for three hours straight cleaning, passing appetizers and directing people where to go. It was so much fun to see her in action and embarrass her just a tiny bit!

Meghan greeted us when we came in the door to the auction. She was in charge of one of the tables!

Headed to Stew Leonard's to meet KK, Graham, Katie and the Lawrence's for some Halloween fun.

Is there anything better than spending time with your cousins? Not if you ask my kids!

Auntie Karla looks cold but happy to be with her daughter and goddaughter.

A few nights later we headed to yet another Halloween celebration at Steven's School - the Halloween Spooktacular! This is one of our favorite events of the year because we see all of our friends and there is a DJ for a big dance party. The girls could not have had more fun!

This is Ellie and her BFF, Brooklyn.

And Lizzie and her two BFF's Mary and Samantha.

And Annie and her two BFF's Braeden and Gabriela.

Ellie Bean got her face painted.

And then we had another Halloween celebration at Halloween on Main Street in Cromwell. Uncle B spent the entire night with us hanging out and taking the kids on the rides. He was awesome!

Lizzie was the only kid who reached the top of the rock climbing wall - thank goodness because we stood in line for over an hour to do it!

And the train ride that all of the kids were waiting for with Uncle B. It was supposed to be the last ride right before we got there but when he saw the disappointment on the kids faces the man agreed to do one more for the cousins!

Our beautiful girl started swim team this year and is loving every minute of it. I'm not sure how many of you know this but I was once a pretty darn good swimmer - a possibility for Olympic contention if you ask my mother! It was so much fun to see Annie jump in and immediately swim 25 laps on her very first day. Since then she has learned to dive off the starting blocks, do flip turns, do butterfly and breast stroke and she has two buddies who are older than her and help her learn new things. I am loving watching her learn to love to swim as much as I did.

Freestyle

Backstroke - one of the harder strokes and Annie took to it right away. In her first meet (She left early because it turned out she had pneumonia and I had ignored all the symptoms for a week - but we won't go there right now) she was entered for backstroke and freestyle and did amazing in both.

Annie and her buddies discussing the upcoming meet!

A very rare moment when I had Annie all to myself after swim team. We had a two hour dinner at Panera just talking and laughing. It was amazing!

Tyler came with Lizzie and Ellie and I to a wake so we took advantage of our good fortune and went to Friendlies for dinner. The girls could not have been more excited to have Tyler all to themselves.

Cousins love!

Katie and Lizzie played travel soccer together and had a blast. The last game was a cold one but they run around so much that they never even noticed.

Our two soccer stars!

Team pictures!

Bob is always getting beat up by the girls on the team - even when he is getting them frozen yogurt!

We all bundled up one Sunday and headed to the Veteran's Day Parade in Hartford. It was a perfect day to hang out together and honor the veterans who have served our country.

Grammy's girl!

Annie was already tired of pictures.

The Lawrence Family.

Lots of family came out to celebrate the veterans in Hartford.

But these two are our favorite Veterans - my dad and Bob got lots of hugs!

We got free movie tickets to see Trolls! The first show was sold out so we had some time to take pictures and play video games!

The girls thought they were hilarious banging their head on the stop sign like Papa did this summer.

Lizzie is seeing a specialist in West Hartford for her skin so Annie came along for moral support. We are hoping that this doctor can provide some much needed advice on how to help Lizzie with the rashes on her hands. She certainly seems to know what she is doing.

I took election day off to spend the day with the Littles and we had a blast. Each kid had a friend over and we spent the day at the park, getting frozen yogurt and playing in the backyard. The girls were amazing and we even got to see Grammy because she was working at the olls.

Lizziebugs birthday!

Lizzie got a shark snuggle tail which she uses every single night. It looks like she is getting eaten by a shark.

More present!

Lizzie's birthday was Veteran's Day so the girls got to dress up in White with red, white and blue accessories. Lizzie ended up having pneumonia so she had to stay home from school.

She was sick but not too sick for a birthday breakfast with just mom and dad!!

Daddy's little girl.

Grammy and Papa and Auntie Karla and the kids all stopped by to see Lizzie on her birthday! Grammy and Papa brought Lizzie a mask to dress up in and she wouldn't take it off.

Auntie Karla had a Veteran's Day run at school so she was dressed like Captain America - Lizzie thought that was the coolest thing of all.

Happy Birthday to our Lizziebug! We are so happy that you were born!

Our beautiful birthday girl - a little Veteran's Day Miracle!

A day later we had a little surprise birthday party for Uncle Mark.

Papa loves his Molly girl.

And then Lizzie was out of school for another 3 days thanks to needing breathing treatments and medication for her lungs.

We ended up at the doctor with all three girls a few days later where it turned out that Annie was the sickest of them all. Do you recall how I made her swim in a meet and sent her to school. Apparently as astute as I think I am I completely missed the fact that she had been wheezing for quite a while and her fever was sticking around for way too long.

Uncle Scott came to visit and the kids could not have been happier to see him. Now that he is an adult with a girlfriend and a real job we don't see him as much so this was a real treat!

And Annie is still down for the count in this one.

In November Molly had her first Mercy Father - Daughter Dance. I loved the preparation to get her ready and I loved sharing stories about my dances with Papa. They are some of the best moments I have with my dad - we had so much fun.

Getting flowers from her Dad.

How cute are these two??

My gorgeous daughter off to make her Dad proud and dance the night away.

Thanksgiving morning. We were still kind of sick and a little bit of a rif raff bunch but luckily Auntie Karla did all of the heavy lifting and we just had to show up for the most part. We had a wonderful day save for the fact that Peter was in the hospital and didn't come hoe until the next day. My mom is so wise because she always reminds me that holidays are just another day of the year and not to let myself lose perspective. Peter came home the next day and Auntie Ann made us a turkey so we could all celebrate again!

My beautiful daughters - what did I do to deserve these girls?

We even got to visit with Autie Renee and we hadn't seen her in a while so it was perfect.

Papa is always excited to see the grands!

Grammy and Abby having a moment.

How cute are these two in matching sweaters?

The day after Thanksgiving we decorated our Christmas tree as we had promised the kids we would do and Lizzie found this ornament that Auntie Meg had made when she was 7!

Samantha came over for a playdate and we introduced her to Cumberland farms and slushies!She loved them as much as Lizzie does.

Even though Ellie's birthday was the next day Lizzie felt like because she was her twinnie she should get to give her a present early. We agreed and she gave Ellie a sweet little pink piggie bank - something Ellie had been asking for forever!

Twin love!

Happy Birthday, Ellie Bean! She got her hatchimal but it was no small feat! Auntie Beth had to go to the store in LA at 5am to get the last one before it sold out and then she had to ship it to CT so we could have it for Ellie's birthday morning!

Ellie loves her hatchimal even before she saw it hatch.

And there is JoJo the hatchimal.

Ellie got all dressed up for her birthday at school - she looked adorable.

My five beautiful children all celebrating Ellie Bean.

Happy Birthday to our beautiful girl. We are so happy that you were born.

Grammy and Papa came over to see the birthday girl.

LizzieBug was so excited to go for her annual Build a Bear trip with her godparents.

Lizzie and her new animal Charding - Wheeler.

Ellie Bean finally got to get her hair done and now has long hair like her sisters. She could not be happier to be able to put headbands and ribbons in her hair just like her sisters.

Molly Girl all dressed up and ready for her first Xavier semi-formal.

And here are the girls! They all looked beautiful and you could hear the giggling and fun they were having from a mile away.

All dressed up and ready to go. The Bogucki's brought them all to the dance after serving the parents appetizers and letting us take pictures in their gorgeous home. Molly texted a few times from the dance before heading to Julia's house for a sleepover after the dance.

We had some trouble getting the girls posed but once they were we got some great pictures of them. They are all such sweet and beautiful kids - so full of laughter and life. It was so much fun to be around them. I am so grateful that Molly has found great friends.

These are my favorite pictures - the candid ones!

Pretending to decorate the Christmas tree at the Bogucki's.

Still posing and still having fun!

Lizzie and Ellie had their annual doctor's appointment and both of them did great.

And lastly we had parent observation at Griffith Academy with a visit from Santa. These girls may be teenagers but they still have lots of fun together and they still secretly love their visit from Santa.