5 On Friday

1). I've been offered another FREE 16x20 Canvas from a company that does INCREDIBLE work! The only problem . . . I have NO clue which photo to choose!?!? Any suggestions? Leave us a comment and let us know which photo on the blog is your favorite! Help us choose which shot to turn into an incredible canvas!!!

2). Last Saturday Grandma came with us to Stepping Stones Children Museum while Daddy had to go to work! We had a FANTASTIC time - again! Shane loved showing Grandma all his favorite things to do at the museum! By the time we left we were all so beat that we all ended up napping once we got home! I have a few cute shots from the museum that I'll be posting the early part of next week - so stay tuned!

3). One of Shane's FAVORITE things to do is to play outside. He goes nuts out in the backyard. He's all over the swings and the slide, he's in and out of his many cars, he's chasing the dogs around the yard with sand from the sandbox and he's always busy splashing in his water table. We're going to be in a TON of trouble once the weather changes and we're stuck inside a lot more! Here are a few snapshots from this past weekend of Shane doing what he loves to do!



He's getting SO big :-(


4). With Chris working 12 hour days this week, Shane hasn't seen too much of his Daddy lately - and he's missing him BIG time! Last night Grandma and I were sitting on the couch in the playroom coloring with Shane when Daddy got home from work. He ran over to his Daddy and a few minutes later Shane had grabbed hold of one of Chris's fingers and was leading him into the playroom. He walked Chris right on over to the couch, stopped and stood there for a few seconds, and then grabbed hold of Grandma's finger . . . so that he could PULL HER UP FROM THE COUCH!!!!!!! All so his Daddy could have a place to sit and play with him! Poor Grandma! It's a good thing she found it cute and not rude!!!! Poor little guy! He LOVES having his Grandma around, so that just shows how much he's been missing Chris!!


5). Long, holiday weekend ahead of us and we're looking forward to it! GramZ and Grandpa are coming up for the weekend and we're going to have ourselves a little BBQ out in the backyard tomorrow. Weather is supposed to be fantastic and we couldn't be more thrilled!

Wordless Wednesday

Busy. Busy. Busy.

That's what we are around here!!!

Work is busy, home is busy, Shane is busy!

Chris and I have pretty much been FALLING into bed at night at (GASP!) 9pm! It's just about all we can do to hold out until then!

We had a busy weekend and another busy weekend coming up! I do have some photos from this past weekend which I hope to be able to upload and edit tonight, so keep your fingers crossed for a few new shots of our favorite toddler tomorrow!

5 On Friday

1). Shane had his 2nd haircut EVER last Saturday! It went as "well" as the first one did. He sat on Chris's lap and basically had to be restrained by Chris and by me. The poor hairdresser just kept moving around trying to get to the areas that she hadn't gotten to yet! It was quite the sight! She actually even told us, numerous times, that she's seen MUCH worse! I have no idea how that's even possible! Aside from the fact that he now looks older (which I hate!!) I think we're all pretty happy with the cut! At least his hair is manageable now! Here's a few shots of Shane coloring and sporting his new 'do!

2). Thanks to his love for Elmo, Shane says "Cheese" now when he sees the camera!!! One of the Elmo's World episodes is about cameras and taking pictures. By the time the episode was over Shane walked out of our room saying "Cheese!!" "Cheese!!" How cute is that?! Thanks, Elmo!!!

3). We're thinking that come holiday time we're going to make the transition from crib to big boy bed! This makes his Mama incredibly sad!!! We've decided to go with a "surf/Hawaiian" theme for his big boy room and while I already have the bedding, I'm lacking on the accessories. Anyone have any suggestions on where I can get some cute/childish surf accessories? While I avoided the whole truck/plane themes on purpose, I do want this to feel like a little boys room! So anything cute and fun is what I'm after!

4). We went over to the Milford Oyster Festival for an hour last weekend and I'm not sure we'll be going back anytime soon! We went last year as well, but it was definitely far more crowded this year and not very pleasant because of that. At least Shane got to ride some rides with Aunt Kate and then Daddy took him on the train!

5). Little bugger LOVES to read in his crib! We had to replace our old baby monitor and we ended up upgrading to a video monitor and it's so friggin cute to sit there and watch him "read" in his crib! He just sits there turning the pages and when he gets to a picture or part of a story that he recognizes he gets all excited and starts "reading" out loud! Very cute! The other benefit here is that his new-found love for books keeps him busy until he's tired enough to go to sleep!

Nothing Like Really Good Friends

On Sunday Shane and I headed up to West Hartford to spend some time with some of my girlfriends from UConn.

I'm sure I've said this before, but there is truly nothing better than getting together with your girlfriends and it's so great to know that 8+ years after leaving college we can still get together and pick up just where we left off. Greater still is that our kids now have the opportunity to grow up together and become the greatest of friends - just like their Mommy's!

We've been through a lot together and we've got a lot of living ahead of us still! I, for one, am looking forward to sharing it with this group of gals!

A VERY pregnant Katie!!
Donovan (one of the twins):
Olivia. The only girl in our group of boys and SO dang cute!!! It's too bad her beautiful eyes are closed in this shot.
Shane. My "pantsless wonder". 1/2 of all diaper changes result in a refusal to put his pants back on. This was one of those times.
Aside from Jeanette's twins (who own all these toys!) the kids were amazed at the new stuff that was surrounding them! They all had the best time going through all the toys and playing with everything they could get their hands on! Poor Jeanette! I'm sure you can all imagine what her house looked like by the time we left!
Matthew (one of the twins) being a cutie-patootie!
Shannon and Olivia (who's hiding behind the ball!)

Thanks for having us, Jeanette!

Great time as always, girls! Can't wait to do it again!

Goodbye to the Cape

Sigh. The last of our Cape Cod vacation pictures. The last of our vacation pictures from 2008. Onward and upward I suppose! Here's to Ocean City, MD - August 2009!!

Our FIRST day at the beach (order isn't everything you know!)

My handsome husband coming in from the water -
Our little surfer dude . . .


Notice that in this picture he's placing the sand INSIDE my bag. The same bag that until about 3 minutes prior had held my precious camera!

Enjoying a popsicle in the courtyard outside our hotel room
Enjoying the beach from the "safety" of the boardwalk! This was actually a really nice area of the resort. This boardwalk overlooked the beach and was lined with lounge chairs. Talk about relaxing! Too bad we were vacationing with a 2 year old and "relaxing" was never a part of our vocabulary! Finally fell asleep - 20 minutes from home! He does this to us all the time!!!
So long Cape Cod! You were good to us and we'll miss you!!!

Oh-No

His new favorite saying. Multiple times a day. Every day. For the last 2 or 3 days. Everything he does (or doesn't do!) gets an "Oh-no"!

Last night Aunt Kate brought Shane a chocolate shake (his favorite!) as a treat. He dropped it on the floor in the playroom (tell me again why I chose to carpet this room???!?!) and his reaction - "Oh No!!!" I think the reaction had more to do with the loss of some of his precious shake than the fact that there was now a mess on the carpet!

What will he come up with next?!

Back to Cape Cod

Enjoying the courtyard:
Walking on the beach with Daddy:
My cutie beach bum!
He's getting to be such a big boy! He insists on doing these things himself now:

With Mommy on the sand dunes:

My boys on the 'dunes. I LOVE this shot!

And again in B&W - because I ADORE black and white!
A few more Cape pictures still to come!

5 On Friday

1). No vacation planned for this weekend! While it'll be nice to be around home, it was also nice to get away for the last two weekends. Vacation may be a lot of work (before and after) but it sure is a lot of fun, too!

2). Chris the is proud owner of a brand new cell phone! New phone number, too - so if you're trying to reach him, call the house! His old cell phone ended up playing with trains in the bath tub. Chris swears it wasn't him and, well, Shane isn't talking!!!

3). Our girls (Kylee and Zoe - in case there was any doubt!) are the proud new owners of brand new dog beds!!! Both of their old beds ended up with a chocolate shake spilled all over them! Chris swears this wasn't him either and, well, Shane still isn't talking! Before getting the new beds, the girls didn't know whether they should go to sleep or try to eat their old ones! Thanks for picking them up, Grandma!

4). Shane has been BIG into trains lately! He gets so excited if we go under a train track, or if we happen to see a train (in person or in a book - doesn't matter) and he's REALLY started playing with his little train set a lot, too.

5). As big as the trains have become in our house, in NO way do they overtake his love of all things truck related! Trucks (and buses) are still his first love! I don't know how most toddlers pass the time on long road trips, but on the way up to the Cape, Shane spent most of his time waving and saying "Bye, Gee" or "Bye, bus" to each and every passing truck/bus on the highway! How tired do you think his little arm was by the time we finally sat down for lunch at The Skipper?!

Cape Cod: Beach Day 2

During both of our days up at the Cape we spent some time at the beach.

These shots are actually from our SECOND day at the beach (I know, I know - I edit what I can - they're not necessarily in order!) It was rather overcast for much of the day that Saturday, though the sun would peek out occasionally.

Only the first few shots are in color. With the overcast weather, I felt these images looked better (and felt better) in good old black 'n white. Not to worry!! Our first day at the beach was bright and sunny and I'll be posting lots of pictures from that day - IN COLOR!!

Despite the fact that Shane HATES walking in sand in anything other than socks and sneakers, he actually had a great time playing in the sand with all of his beach toys - but when he was ready to go, he was ready to go!! I think we only managed to get an hour out of him each day. But at least it was an hour that Chris and I got to actually sit down, relax and really enjoy our vacation! That's the beauty of the beach - Shane wouldn't step foot off the Neat Sheet and towels we had laid down for him!

He LOVES fish. Like infatuated with them!!
My Beach Baby!
Busy. Busy. Busy.
First you have to make sure that EVERY LAST TOY is out of the bag!
Then you can start playing in the sand!
Look - "It's a bird, it's a plane, it's Superman!" (It's actually just a plane!) And we're STILL amazed by it!
"Boy this vacation stuff is exhausting"!!!!! My other beach bum!
Have I mentioned how much I love these two???

Cape Cod: Hyannis

We got back from our weekend on the Cape on Sunday and already we're missing vacation!

Vacation with a toddler is tough (especially a toddler who doesn't know how to sit down!) but it was still vacation and it was nice to be away. It's always rough to come home and get back into the swing of things.

We stayed at the Blue Water Resort in South Yarmouth and aside from going into Hyannis on Saturday, we didn't venture too far from the resort!

We took Shane on his very first boat ride (he LOVES boats) and took a cruise around Hyannis Port - it was a great hour long ride and we got to see lots of great sights, lots of great views and lots of boats!!! We had a fantastic time.

After our boat ride we walked down Main St in the center of Hyannis and checked out some of the shops. Chris checked out the JFK Museum and Shane and I hung around and watched people climb onto and off of the big "Duck Tour" boats/trucks - he didn't know what to make of those!

Taking in his very first boat ride:
Checking out the sites with Daddy:
Oohhhhhh!!!
"Hi Daddy!" Blowing Daddy kisses:

Some views from our cruise around Lewis Bay into Hyannis Port:


The Kennedy Compound. If you click on the picture (to make it larger), you'll see the large white house in the front. This was owned by the Kennedy Family and was sold to Senator Edward Kennedy for $1 by his mother just before she died. The house to the left (and slightly behind) the Kennedy Family home was the home of Robert Kennedy and the house behind the Kennedy Family Home was owned by JFK. Both homes are now owned by Edward Kennedy as well.

A few snapshots from our time walking around Hyannis. Shane rode the carousel with Chris and the whole time he moved his arm up and down, up and down, up and down, just like the horses were doing! Apparently they were going "up" in this shot!

Playing skee ball! What you don't see here is that everytime Shane threw the ball it would only go half way up the ramp. He'd start clapping getting all excited and then he would climb up the ramp to chase after it! HYSTERICAL!!!
Beach pictures to come soon!!!