Grandma Laurie & Nemo

Greetings from the pellfam! Our camera hasn't been getting much use lately, though we did catch these two highlights of recent days: 1. A wonderful weekend visit from Grandma Laurie that consisted of lots of drawing and craft projects, a lovely long walk and picnic at the park, watching the adorable movie "Milo and Otis," and.... shopping! My mom and I have a serious problem when we get together. We also took her out for an early birthday dinner, where we had the staff embarrass her! We all loved having you here Mom and miss you!

We then had a few crazy days with Autumn demonstrating extreme separation anxiety while at school, and Evan coming down with a high fever and dizziness. After a couple days at home and Mark and I juggling sick time at work, we thought he was all better last night and took the kids to see Disney on Ice's Finding Nemo, which was wonderful! We got a great deal on tickets through my work and ending up spending more on the ridiculously priced edible Nemo paraphenelia than we did on the tickets! We all had fun though, and headed off for our Friday, but when I picked the kids up Evan had his fever back... ugh! We'll try to lay low this weekend and get him all better. Love to all!

A Fun Weekend... then Evan's Surgery

Lots going on in these parts, including a surreal high of 71 degrees today. It fits the weird experience we had today, one day after Evan's surgery. But first, the fun stuff... last Monday we got a surprise visit from Popski and Dixie on their way home from Michigan back to Florida. The kids were very surprised when we picked them up from school that day and told them who was coming for dinner! Then the weekend came with some warm weather, and Autumn over her bout of pneumonia... the kids played their first soccer game with their team at the YMCA on Saturday, which was, well, interesting. Evan picked up the game pretty quickly and seemed to enjoy running after the ball, whereas Autumn was bored with the whole thing just five minutes into it. She kept coming over to us in the parent's folding chair area, even when she was supposed to be in the game. She did, however, enjoy the treats at the end... here she is experimenting with a fruit roll-up. Sunday we tossed their bikes in the car and after church spent time riding along the river downtown - we had a blast!

Then Monday was Evan's surgery - ear tubes in, adenoids out. We were there at the outpatient clinic half the day, and he came out of it pretty well, that is until he woke up this morning saying his legs, arms, and neck hurt and scared me and Mark! He asked to be carried because he couldn't stand. We tracked down his doctor and after some searching, found out that he had been given a muscle relaxer during his surgery because he was biting down while they were trying to get the giant adenoids out, and one of the side effects is "muscle soreness" for a day or two. Well, as of bedtime tonight the poor little guy had not stood up once today. Mark was home with him today and carried him everywhere. I will be home with him tommorrow and hope he will be able to walk as my back is in really bad shape and he's a hefty 45 sturdy pounds! Autumn's been a trooper, though tonight when I carried Evan to bed she laid down on the ground and dramatically cried, "Both of my legs are broken!" I wonder where she gets that...

Pellfam Birthday Video

Here's the video... Pellerito Birthday Bash 2008! For those of you who don't know, 3 out of 4 pellfam members celebrate their b-day on January 19:



By the way, a cute quote from the Birthday morning...
Autumn: "I'll be turning 4 at my party!"
Daddy: "Actually, Autumn, you turned 4 while you were sleeping."
Autumn: (puzzled, after looking at herself) "...but I didn't get any bigger!"

And one from this evening...
Daddy: "Don't worry, I'll fix it tomorrow."
Evan: "But you can't forget to remind me to ask you."

The Triple Birthday

Well, it was our big weekend... for those who don't know, Autumn and Evan were born on my birthday four years ago (and at the same time of morning that Mark and his twin brother Joe were born, 2:59 a.m. and 3:10 a.m.!). We had friends over for a wild party. We tried something new this year to, you know, enhance their individuality - we set up two tables and the kids each got to pick their own decorations... Autumn chose My Little Pony and Evan picked Spiderman. It actually turned out quite cute. We had ten kids and nine adults over for pizza, salad, ambrosia, lemon cake for the adults and the kids got to decorate burnt sugar cookies. For the life of me I can't time cookies right. The kids didn't seem to mind, once a gob of frosting was spread on! Mark and I got a little date, though... he had Friday off and I took it off of work. Though we spent most of the day cleaning while the kids were at the Y, we did manage to get out and see a movie, which is a rare treat! We had popcorn for lunch. It was delightful! Mark's working on a b-day video which will be coming soon. Thanks everyone for the cards, calls, and emails! We all feel very loved.

The Holiday Album

Greetings everyone and Happy New Year! We were so blessed to see almost every member of our families and many friends too during December. While most of the 186 photos we brought home on our camera from our Michigan trip were of the kids wrestling with various uncles and cousins, we did manage to get some good group shots. Enjoy!

All the excitement of Christmas wore little Autumn out. She slept on Grandma Laurie's lap for most of the service on Christmas Eve.
Evan and Autumn (outfits compliments of Grandma Laurie) carried on the tradition that Marisa and her brother Joel had when we were little of exchanging each other's gifts on Christmas Eve. Evan bought a balloon pump with 3,000 balloons for Autumn, while she picked a stuffed dino that can be drawn on for Evan.
Autumn shares a laugh with Uncle Joel on Christmas Day while visiting PaPa at his assisted living. She has had a whole lot of Christmas chocolate here!
Aunt Pam and Aunt Mary came over to my mom's with all the kids the day after Christmas to relax and catch up.

The descendants of Millie Birg! Marisa's cousins and their kids on Mom's side with all the aunts and uncles had a lovely party at the Clubhouse at my mom's condo complex.

Autumn and Evan love their second-cousins Ross and Dana! We gathered with Bob & Lynn, Pam & Dave, and Linda & Dan before heading to Grand Rapids.

Sunday was our Pellerito family party at Grandma Linda's! The five cousins had a blast being silly and opening presents together. From left: Evan, Chandler, Sebastian, Danny, and Autumn!

Linda hosted the whole gang! Thanks for a wonderful day, Linda! And we are very thankful Nana was there to celebrate - it's been a tough year for her. Please disregard Autumn picking her nose...
We were thrilled that Mike, Rachel, and Lauren could come by for a visit that evening! The kids loved rough-housing with Brian and Mike. We need them to come do that everyday to tire the kids out for bed!
The kids take a break to pose with Lauren, Daddy, and "those silly Decker boys" as Autumn called them (Brian on left, soon to be a daddy too!; and Mike on the right).

And one final get-together before leaving MI on New Year's Eve - Great Grandpa Tony, who has also had a difficult year health-wise, got to see his five great-grandchildren as we gathered for donuts with Popski and Dixie, who were in town. Here we have four generations of Pellerito's!

Thanks to everyone for making time to see us and working around our crazy schedule. Later!

The Holiday Shuffle (including new video)

The Holiday Shuffle is well underway, be it going to the YMCA to sing Christmas Carols, or taking off soon for Grandma Laurie's - and then Grandma Linda's - in Michigan. The photo above shows just how to get 3 and 4 year-olds from point A to point B without getting one lost or hit by a car! They were walking over from Preschool to sing their big Christmas Carol Concert at the lobby of the YMCA, and you simply HAVE to see the video of it (the video can also be found at right, but here is a bigger version). Not exactly Carnegie Hall quality, but very cute nonetheless:
Another part of the Holiday Shuffle: Driving up to Ohio to see Grandpa just before - and back from after - a big snowstorm struck the area. The fun part was getting to enjoy the snow during the stay itself. Uncle Joel led the children in this creative arts endeavor... later when asked the highlight of his day, Evan replied, "making the snow spiral!"
Looking forward to the final chapter of the holidays, in Michigan for a week of family fun (leaving tomorrow, staying with Grandma Laurie then Grandma Linda). I don't think the kids realize how spoiled they are about to become... and now, we leave you with a glimpse of the Christmas Village that sits in our living room. Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Happy Holidays... Couple Cute Things

Just a quick couple of neat pictures for you. Above are Christmas trees Autumn and Evan made in Preschool yesterday. Their teacher wrote down 10 things that they said they love on the heart ornaments, and they used their hand prints to make the tree. Click on the pic for a larger view, some of the things they said are quite cute (Evan's on left, Autumn's on right)!

Autumn and Evan also recently went to a kids concert at the local library, which landed their pic in the local weekly newspaper (as usual, complete with incorrect spelling of our last name), see below:

Happy holidays, hope all is well with you!
-Mark, Marisa, Autumn, and Evan

Winter Arrives in WV

The kids are home sick, hanging out with Daddy instead of pre-school. We need them to get healthy (they've been coughing seemingly for weeks), and yet, we just received our first light snow accumulation of the season. What a conundrum. OH! and it's that perfect wet packing snow! That decided it for us...

While outside, Autumn and Evan met a new neighbor kid who looked very sad and afraid. He is kinda short, his eyes don't match, and wears a funny looking orange plastic hat. They decided to take the new kid under their wing, to make him feel more welcome. It was hard to get that frown off his face, but after some time, the warmth that Autumn and Evan showed him justed melted his heart... and the rest of him, I'm afraid.

A few quotable notables:

Daddy: "Autumn, are you eating snow?"
Autumn: "No..."
Daddy: "How does it taste?"
Autumn: "Good!"

Mom: "I want to show you your advent calendar."
Autumn: "Is it a Dora one?" Evan" "Is it a Spiderman one?"

Evan: "Don't go to sleep, Daddy, because I have SO many questions." (while trying to get him to go to bed)

Autumn: "I'm going to KEEP this Daddy... this silly, cool Daddy."

Well, Marisa just got home from her work to take over the kids... now I have to go to my work. Somehow, we have been able to sort out the kids sick time. We've only used one day of family sick leave so far this season. :)

-Mark

I Dreamt of a White Thanksgiving

After a rainy Wednesday drive up to Michigan, we woke up Thanksgiving Day to a beautiful first snow of the season at Grandma Laurie's! It felt more like Christmas than Thanksgiving as we bundled up in winter coats, and with maple-pecan sweet potatoes in hand, drove over the river and through the woods to Aunt Mary and Uncle Frank's house! We were joyfully reunited with Marisa's brother Joel and three cousins we grew up with - Andrea, Julie, Matt, and Andrea's darling daughters. We had a wonderful feast... and much to be thankful for. The next day we hung out with the Berry side of the family, where again we got to see some dear cousins, Jill, Heather, and Dana. We all went to see Marisa's grandpa, who seemed a little overwhelmed with Autumn and Evan wrestling in his room but enjoyed the visit nonetheless.We hung out with Marisa's aunts and uncles and cousins Fri. night and had a blast. Saturday we relaxed and chilled with Grandma Laurie, who enjoyed a day with the kids to herself!

The kids were also thrilled to spend a couple days with Uncle Joel, though he had to go back to GR to work Saturday... speaking of GR, we missed all you guys but can't wait to see ya'll at Christmas. We can only do so much driving in four days!

Now that we're home, boxes full of Christmas decos fill the house and Autumn festively encourages us to keep decorating, despite mounds of laundry and an unpacked suitcase! But she's right - decorating is more fun!

Twins In Trees

Enjoying the brief lull after what has been a couple busy weeks... and getting ready for our Thanksgiving Trip to Michigan. We spent a nice family day at Valley Park, where Autumn and Evan found a few nice trees to hug and trails to ride bikes on. We also managed to get some work done, including cleaning and vacuuming our neglected vehicles!

Our little boy is on his third ear infection in two months! We took him to urgent care yesterday with him kicking and screaming from his ear ache. Just got hooked up with a more serious form of antibiotics artillery which should hopefully wipe it out before our trip (oh please, we hope!!!).

A few Quotable Notables:

"Evan, Mama will take care of the parenting."

-Autumn, after Evan told her not to do something.

"Mooommmmmm? Where does God LIVE?"

-Evan

"Why both of them have white hair? Because they're very old? Why do they not even die?"

-Evan, a very innocent inquiry after an old couple passed us in the park.

"Does that mean we can go to his house and give him a hug?" -Autumn, after I told her that Uncle Frank did well in his surgery.

And finally, one of the funnier mispellings you'll ever see, spotted just outside of Valley Park: Go to http://www.pellfambackdrops.blogspot.com/ to see the picture. :)

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Daddy's Home!

After a long 8 days, Mark drove home yesterday from Long Island. I met him on my way home from work at the Y, and we walked in to pick the kids up together. Mark hid in the coat closet while I said, "I have a surprise for you!" When Autumn and Evan saw Daddy, they smothered him in hugs and shrieks! Later, Autumn admitted that she thought the surprise was candy! The sweet tooth on that girl...

Here's a candid from a recent chilly morning, when Evan went to hang out with Autumn and her animals upon waking. Notice Autumn's lovely morning hair and sleepy eyes!

We had a little scare this morning when I had left-side chest pain all night, and this morning was getting worse. We were this close to making the mistake of going to the ER, but I got ready for work, we dropped the kids off at school, and walked into my doctor's office as it opened at 8:30, and they were able to squeeze be in, thank goodness. My doc figures I have a bruised, possibly cracked, rib, which I can only guess I got rough-housing with the kids. They're always jumping on and climbling all over us. So it will take a long time to heal but we were just so relieved it wasn't a heart issue! Speaking of, please keep my dear Uncle Frank in your prayers as he undergoes heart surgery tommorrow.

Well, exhausted here, goodnight to all...

Long Time From Home on Long Island

Greetings all, from beautiful Long Island, New York. I have been here for a week of job training, including a course on Fire Behavior Calculations that just started today and goes through Sunday.

After cramming my brain full through 5 pm each day, I have managed to check out the local sights. Late afternoon Monday, I went to Fire Island. It was a fantastic sunset, and I collected a few large clamshells to bring back to the kids for them to paint. It was only 48 degrees at the time, so I had most of the beach to myself (except for a few fishermen).

I was very fortunate to have the chance to see the Monahans, conveniently located in New Jersey's western NYC suburbs on my way to Long Island Sunday. Gina (Vantuno) and I haven't seen eachother since Marisa and I got married... we go all the way back to our years in the Michigan Marching Band. And at long last, I finally had the pleasure of meeting her husband Tim, and their cute li'l baby growing in Gina's tummy. Thanks for dinner guys! And enjoy your independence while it lasts. :) Gina is in the final trimester.

The trip has been great, but is already plenty long enough... looking forward to getting back home to Maris and the kiddies. Long Island is much bigger than I thought it would be, and surprisingly wooded and beautiful. Brookhaven National Lab (location of my training) is HUGE sprawling campus, basically its own city. I have met many wonderful people here from many disciplines, including New York City firefighters, Forest Service throughout New England - and a truly wonderful group of marine biologists from the Riverhead Foundation for Marine Research and Preservation... they rescue wayward dolphins, whales, and sea turtles.

As for other wildlife, this place has turkeys like most other places have squirrels or geese. It's hilarious, they'll walk right in front of your vehicle as you try to leave the parking lot!

Happy Halloween! And Celebrating 5 Years...

Happy Halloween! Unfortunately, Mark is leaving tomorrow for Long Island, for a week of training. We are having a final Family Day complete with pumpkin carving. Luckily, though Mark will miss Halloween,
we have already had a costume party at the YMCA. The kids are dragons this year! Thanks to Amy for the hand-me-down costumes.

The glorious peak of "Autumn" colors have just blazed through West Virginia the last few days, and we have celebrated it with hikes and leaf-collecting.

Also, of course, we just had our Five Year Anniversary last week. Evan took this impromptu picture of us. We just love this time of year, for so many reasons!

Last Saturday, Mark was the Incident Meteorologist for Bridge Day, the largest annual event in West Virginia... this year, it brought an estimated 155,000 people. The weather behaved (sustained winds stayed just below the critical event-closing 15 mph), and there were only 5 or 6 minor injuries... last year, there was a fatality. Just incredible: 876 parachute jumps ("basejumping") off of the New River Gorge Bridge, coincidentally a 876 foot drop. Also rafters, kayakers, and repellers. Check out the 2 1/2 minute video Mark put together on our subsidiary website, pellfam backdrops. If this teaser video doesn't make you want to see it, nothing will:



Have a good Halloween! -Mark, Marisa, Autumn, and Evan

5th Anniversary! and Leaf Play Video

Hello all,

Just a quick update to let you know: The Leaf Play Video is now available on the right side of the webpage. Click on it to feel like a kid again!

And we're on the eve of our 5th Anniversary! Tomorrow, we both have to work but will be going out with some friends on a dinner date followed by Kathy Griffin, live at the Clay Center. I'm sure we'll enjoy it after wading through the crowd of protesters... (see letter to the editor "Protest Griffin’s Emmy blasphemy" at bottom of this page -http://wvgazette.com/webtools/email/Opinion/Letters/2007101036)

-Mark

Carrots, frozen peas, leaves, chuck e. cheese, a hike, and pellfam backdrops (?!?!)

Just a little bit of everything, crammed into the past 3 days! It all began with Marisa's harrowing epi-K laser eye surgery Friday morning, followed by sleep for most of the rest of the day. The perk for the kids was a surprise trip to Chuck E. Cheese, so that Marisa could continue her rest. And thanks to us crashing another child's birthday party, Autumn and Evan were absolutely enamored to meet Chuck IN PERSON.

Marisa was pretty much in utter pain all weekend with stinging eyes that could be barely forced to remain open longer than a few seconds. The first post-surgery check-up was Saturday morning, which was followed by the kids' first visit to Krispy Kreme, next door to the eye center. It was a good thing that a window separated them from the donut machine, because they were enthralled. After that, we really needed to be around some HEALTHY food, so it was time to harvest the carrot crop out of our garden. We repeatedly had to stop Autumn from consuming unwashed carrots caked with dirt.

Finally, things got a tad better for Marisa's eyes after a quick visit to the laser eye doc's office and the magic of temporary dilation. The good news that we found out is that they're already 85% healed, and with the eye bandages/contacts still in place, it's actually a big part of why her eyes have been hurting so much. And why she has had to "Give Peas a Chance" all weekend.

We then explored St. Albans City Park for the first time and had a picnic complete with nature hike. The kids loved exploring the forest and collecting leaves.

Finally, the simple joys of playing in the leaves late this afternoon. Yay! And I had no idea how good sleds (obtained from garage sale yesterday for $4 for the pair) could work on leaves, with just a little bit of a slope. I can't wait to show you the video... which I'll upload to the website in coming days.

A bit exhausted, but a pretty fun few days. So, that covers everything in the title of this blog entry. Oh, wait... except for pellfam backdrops. Whazzat? Well...

ANNOUNCING PELLFAM BACKDROPS, another wing of the pellfam blogworld. A place for us to share some of the surroundings of our life here in WV, or the places we travel. The first installment: Bridges. One thing this area has plenty of is large rivers, and thus, plenty of beautiful spans across them. Check it out! Pellfam Backdrops will not be updated as frequently as our family website, but I'll let you know here the times that it is. And the link is always available on the right, under the Time/Temp bug.

-Mark