Yup, it's really a girl....

Yesterday I went back for my follow up ultrasound for Baby Snider #2. The first time she wouldn't cooperate and the tech was unable to get two pictures she needed - left hand and the brain. I didn't mind though because it was an excuse to have another ultrasound and see this little baby swimming around and sucking her thumb! It was confirmed this is a girl and we got tons more pictures - hopefully I can get them posted soon.

Hope everyone is unwinding after the long exhausting week we just had. Both Kristin and I had long journeys home on Monday. Kristin and 2 other cars on the highway hit a piece of a plow that was in the road, giving her a flat tire. After waiting for someone to come change the donut then waiting to get a new tire, and traffic because of the weather her 3.5 hour trip home became 9 hours!! We didn't have trouble getting home but once we got into Hoboken it was a mess. I have to circle a 5 block radius about 10 times while Dan shoveled out a parking spot so we could at least leave the car long enough to take the suitcases and bags out. A couple of hours later he returned to dig out the car again so I could leave in the AM, only to find that there was no sense digging it out because it kept getting plowed in. Keeping his tired pregnant wife in mind, he moved the car into a garage at midnight. Great idea - but have you ever tried to find your car in a parking garage when someone else parked it and tried to explain where it was when you were asleep? I could hear the horn, but I couldn't find the car! Eventually I did, but we ran through the same thing last night after had been grocery shopping. I think tonight I will just leave the car at my office as we prepare for the arrival of Dans friends for their New Years Eve Phish concerts.

What are you doing for New Years Eve?

Congratulations Nicole and Larry

Charlotte Jeannette 5 lbs 14 ounces

and older sister

Lauren Maryellen 6lbs 4 ounces

HOW CUTE ARE THEY!!

Congratulations on your prestigious Award Liz

Liz Happy Belated Birthday and congratulations on your Phi Delta Beta Business award! What an honor This award is not given out lightly You did a great job and we are all sooooooooooooooo proud of you!!!

Happy Birthday Kevin

Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday Dear Kevin
Happy Birthday to You

Have a wonderful day and know we all love you

Congratulations Nicole & Larry

...on the arrival of your little bundles of joy - Charlotte & Lauren. Nicole did an awesome job cooking these little girls for over 37 weeks! We wish Nicole and speedy recovery and send lots of hugs and kisses to those precious little girls.

The hunt for the perfect Christmas tree...

The trees have been cut down, put up and decorated and I am happy to say that we did not make the same mistake we made last year - our Christmas tress actually fit in our houses! We made two trips out to the tree farm - once on Saturday to get Andreas tree and again on Sunday to get our tree and meet up with Patrick, Sara, and William. After seeing the line on Saturday Andrea was going to get her tree elsewhere but all Claire was talking about was the tractor ride so we waited the hour in line to get into the farm. By the time we got there, we had limited daylight left so Andrea had to find a tree quickly. By the time Dan had it cut down, it was really dark - but that made it that much nicer for sitting around the fire and roasting marshmallows.

After waiting in line for an hour, Claire needed a little potty break before heading out into the field

After all Claire talked about was the tractor ride, the tractor pulled in and said they were done for the night. We were able to sweet talk the guy into one more ride for Claire.

And she found her perfect tree - she may have over compensated from last year and gone much smaller, but the tree had a great shape and it really full. We had it up and decorated by Saturday night. Now Andrea just needs to post pictures.

Dan cuts down the tree while Andrea holds on. Don't worry, we moved Claire in case the tree came tumbling down.

After cutting the tree down, they have a tractor that brings the tree back, but it was late (and dark) so Dan opted to carry it back. Claire was right on his tail following along.

And then we made a second trip back on Sunday to get our tree and help Patrick, Sara, and William pick out their tree. The kids had a good time - they played in the car while we waited in line and then ran around the field.

Claire and William (and I guess, Dan too!) pose in the field. The two kids had a blast chasing each other around.

Just checking out the trees

Andrea was a champ, helping the pregnant ladies with the toddlers :-) Claire loved the marshmallows, but didn't want to put them near the fire. She enjoyed eating them cold off the stick....Mmmmmmm!

The tractor ride back - it was freexing outside!

Working the day after Thanksgiving

This is the Breakfast of Champions the day after Thanksgiving: Bacon, egg, and cheese pizza.

Happy Birthday Erin

Happy Birthday to You

Have a Great Day

Happy Birthday to you...

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday Sister Paula
Happy Birthday to you

Hope you have a wonderful birthday - we'll celebrate over Thanksgiving :-)

TECWAE

---

A simple but good laugh
                       
                        GOD
                        LOVES DRUNK PEOPLE TOO

A man and his wife were awakened at 3:00 am by a loud
                        pounding on the door. The man gets up and goes
to the
                        door where a drunken stranger, standing in the
pouring
                        rain, is asking for a push.

"Not a chance," says the husband, "it is 3:00 in the morning!"

He slams the door and returns to bed.

"Who was that?" asked his wife.

"Just some drunk guy asking for a push," he answers.

"Did you help him?" she asks.

"No, I did not, it is 3:00 in the morning and it is pouring rain out
there!"

"Well, you have a short memory," says his wife. "Can't you 
                        remember about three months
                        Ago when we broke
                        down, and those two guys helped
                        us? I think you should help him, and you should
be ashamed of
                        yourself! "God loves drunk people too."

The man does as he is told, gets dressed, and goes out into the
pounding rain.

He calls out into the dark, "Hello, are you still there?"

"Yes," comes back the answer.

"Do you still need a push?" calls out the husband.

"Yes, please!" comes the reply from the dark.

"Where are you?" asks the husband.

"Over here on the swing set," replies the drunk.
                       

Long overdue...and 14 week update

Guess I have been slack about updating the blog - I'm not going to lie, I have been getting to bed very early lately! I don't feel tired during the day but after coming home and getting dinner ready and then getting Claire bathed and to bed, I pass out about 5 seconds after I find the couch. Wonder where those awesome genes come from?!?

While Dan was on a 3 day Phish tour (and since he can't stand the inside of pumpkins) we headed to Andreas to carve pumpkins - or maybe from the look of it we ate them....

But we eventually did get to carving them. Claire enjoyed popping the pieces out much more than she enjoyed sticking her hands in the pumpkin.

And here's Claire and I's final product. Do you see the kitty we cut around? Claire loved seeing the pumpkins lit up outside Andreas. We had to go back and keep looking over and over and over.
All Claire wanted to be for Halloween was a yellow princess. We showed her tons of costumes and this was the one she wanted. At least she will be able to play dress up with it now. She really wanted nothing to do with the crown, but she loved the costume.
I was going to upload another picture from Halloween but blogger is giving me trouble so this is all you get....

On another note, I had another doctors appointment today and everything looks good, heartrate was strong at 155 bpm. Today I am 14 weeks and 3 days along with the peanut and have gained a total of 5 lbs. The first trimester screening came back good and we scheduled our gender ultrasound! They let me schedule it a little early so we can find out before Christmas :-)

Ultrasound pictures

Yesterday I had my first trimester screening which includes an ultrasound. While it is kind of hard to see what is going on in the pictures, it is crazy to see the difference between the last ultrasound we had at 7 weeks and this one. We are still on for a May 14th due date.

This pictures shows the profile view with the baby's hand over his/her nose. The entire time we had the ultrasound the baby was rubbing his/her nose.
Just the plain old profile shot
And a 3D picture for you - you can see the baby's right arm on his/her head and the feet curled up.
Saturday marks the start of the second trimester :-)

Paul's Epic Halloween Costume

This weekend, we ventured up to Boston College to see Clemson lay an egg, but we had a good time nonetheless (I live compound words.) As it was Halloween Eve, people all over the place were dressed up. The only one in our party to do so was Paul. He chose to dress up as Kenny Powers from HBO's Eastbound and Down. He pulled it off pretttttty good. See for yourself.

Claires statements of the week

Honestly, I don't know where she comes up with this stuff, but sometimes we can't help but laugh at the things that come out of her mouth.

Last week we were eating dinner - as soon as we sit down Claire goes around the table - Daddy, how was work? Mommy, how was work? And then a few minutes later she looks at me and says - Mommy, no talk with food in your mouth - chew first. Well, excuse me little lady....

I took her to the bathroom and as soon as she peed she looked at me and said - Mommy, I'm so proud of you

She must tell me 10 times a day - Be patient, mommy, just be patient

Paula - stop reading! Yesterday Claire woke up from her nap, walked into the living room and said Mommy, pee pee accident in my bed - oh Jesus! I really don't know where this one came from - but I couldn't help but laugh :-)

Long time, no post....

Over Columbus Day weekend, we took a trip to Ohio to celebrate Dans grandmothers 90th birthday. We had a great time with great weather while we there (until we left to fly back), but that's a story for another day. Let's just say we enjoyed 2 flights from Cleveland to Newark because of the weather...



Focus, focus (it's hard for the pregnant lady you know)...enjoy these pictures from our trip!

Nicoles shower pictures

Enjoy this video of pictures from Nicoles shower :-) If you are at work, you might want to turn the sound down.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mason's first day at work

Donations for Julie's Clinic

Julie is still in need of $300 for her clinic so for those who still want to donate please send a check made out to Julie to my house. Her clinic is being renovated and she is very busy working on it !! Thank You Julie and Gail

Happy Birthday Julie

Happy Birthday Julie we hope you have a great celebration with your fiiends. Maybe you will find some delicious American food like a cheeseburger and fries!!!!

Happy Birthday Andrea

Have a wonderful Birthday what a great place to celebrate Ireland

the beer is great even if your not a beer drinker you have to try some!!

Happy Birthday Paul

Hope you have a wonderful Birthday and a great vacation

Next Stop: Ireland

I've had a great week in England and tonight my friend Laura and I travel to Ireland to meet up with our friend Richard. We have a busy week planned and we will be there until Thursday night when we head to Germany. I'm excited for several reasons - 2 being I am officially on vacation next week (I've been working from the J&J offices around here) and I've always wanted to go Ireland!

This week has been great. When I got here on Friday and couldn't find my friends, I immediately regretted not having a working phone OR getting my watch fixed before I left. After about 30 minutes (I think?) they found me waiting right where we had agreed to meet - Russell had decided they should go in and meet me but I had already passed through when they got there so they missed me - oh well. We had a 'full English breakfast' and then headed off to London for the day. My friends live in Windsor so we took the train in on Saturday and drove in on Sunday. Great weather and great sites - we had fun!

This week I've been working in our offices in Maidenhead and Pinewood . We've laid low for the most part -work, gym, dinner, tv, and sleep - but it is been good just not being home!

This morning I went to Windsor Castle while my friends went to work. It is about 1.5 mile walk from their house and the walk is mostly along the river so it was a perfect morning for a coffee and a stroll. I was really excited to see the changing of the guards...but of course in the month of September that only happens on odd days....Oh well - still a good time! You can't take a lot of pictures but here were some of the highlights....

My welcome banners in front of Laura and Russell's house...


Walking up to Windsor Castle...

Inside the fortress...
Saint George's Cathedral
Guard on duty...
I think this is one of my favorite pictures I've taken so far!
It's official - I'm not destined to get a good picture with a guard! Oh well!

Here is a brief plan for Ireland:

Cork --> Kilarney --> Galway --> Dublin

I hope everyone has a good weekend and gets to go and enjoy the Big E!!!

Greetings from London!

Just wanted to share a few pictures from my weekend in London! More details to come....

'Proper Fish & Chips' - the meal and the name of the restaurant! Just for you Mere...


Playing with my new camera at the London Eye!

Big Ben & the Parliament - I look exhausted because this was post-red eye with no additional sleep...
Having a beer along the Thames with my friend Russell
Tower Bridge walking to dinner

Jumping picture with Laura in front of Buckingham Palace -



I had to do it...



We were running a little low on time and resorted to the car for part of the tour - with Big Ben!



We had been trying to find a guard ALL DAY! Finally found one while we were getting ready to leave at Downing Street and I made my friend stop his car so we could run and get a picture...

...the cops weren't as excited about our plan as I was :) Just got off with a warning and a 6 month addition to some list - I personally think it was worth the picture!