Claire Updates

Things are finally settling down with us (meaning Dan can walk, and Claire and I are no longer sick!) so we have had some time to play with our new camera

This is Claires least favorite part of the day - tummy time! This must have been as soon I put her down because once she is down it doesn't take long for her to start drooling and screaming.
Kristin and Andrea were around this weekend to help Dan and I take care of ourselves and Claire. Kristin had bought Claire this outfit before she was born and she never wore it because it was too big. Well, with a little modification for the cooler weather, (add tights!), we were able to get her in it, although the skirt still falls off if you hold her up.
Saturday we went shopping because Claire is still in 0-3 month clothes and we don't have a lot of clothes warm enough to send her to day care. Who would have thought we would need long pants in that size? My easy solution was to buy her jeans that would match any long sleeve onesies she has. Well, Little Miss No Waist doesn't even fit in the 0-3 month jeans - as soon as Dan moved his hand they were around her ankles again! By the time they do fit, they will probably be too short.

So, I am having a bad hair day - what do you want me to do about it??
She either looks at the camera or smiles, we don't usually get both. I don't know why her hair looks so red in all the pictures....

The Aunties gave Claire a bath and she loved it!
Finally, a smile and a look - this one makes it all worth it!

Happy Birthday Julie!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Julie!
Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday Julie! We hope you have a great day celebrating and hope you got some celebrating in over the weekend as well! Have a great day!

Paul needs help raising money for cancer

Paul has started up this page to receive donations to sponsor him for doing the half marathon he's running in a couple weeks. His monetary goal is $500 and hopefully, he can break that mark. Good luck on raising the money and finishing the race.

Happy Birthday Andrea!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Andrea!
Happy Birthday to you!



I hope you find something wonderful to do with that money you will get back from your deductible. Yes, ladies and gentleman, the person who hit Andreas car filed and claim and she is going to get her money back. See, there are some nice people out there still.

Happy Birthday Paul!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Paul!
Happy Birthday to you!!!


Happy birthday Paul - we hope you have a great day and weekend celebrating!

Wedding Pictures

I don't have time this morning to pick out the good ones and post them, but here are all of them - yes, 360 of them, for your viewing pleasure - compliments of el gimpy!

TECWAE

Should children witness childbirth? Due to a power outage, only one paramedic responded to the call. The house was very dark so the paramedic asked Kathleen, a 3-yr old girl to hold a flashlight high over her mommy so he could see while he helped deliver the baby. Very diligently, Kathleen did as she was asked. Heidi pushed and pushed and after a little while, Connor was born. The paramedic lifted him by his little feet and spanked him on his bottom. Connor began to cry. The paramedic then thanked Kathleen for her help and asked the wide-eyed 3-yr old what she thought about what she had just witnessed. Kathleen quickly responded, 'He shouldn't have crawled in there in the first place......smack him again!' If you don't laugh at this one, there's no hope for you!

Ramblings....

I am sure we are all looking forward to another family wedding this weekend. I hope Tommy and Sarah have a stress free week as they prepare for the big day!

And I will leave you with a few more pictures for you all to enjoy. Claire has become very interactive and loves to smile! Every day when we pick her up from day care she gives us a big smile. She will only be in day care three days this week because Claire is taking a field trip to Grandma and Piperes house on Wednesday. Yes, we are letting her leave us for two nights! I don't know who will have more fun - Claire or the grandparents??

Claire has definitely found her thumb. This is how we often find her these days... Remind you of anyone?
Our field trip of the weekend was apple picking. We took a hay ride and then spent some time in the apple orchards. Dan had a good process - walk up to a tree, pick an apple, taste it and if he liked it we would pick some apples from that tree. If not, we walked to the next type of apple to repeat the process. Can you tell how much Claire loved picking the apples?

Have a wonderful week! :-)

We did it....

I got up, got ready, fed Claire, and made it out the door and to work by 7 AM!!!! Dan got Claire dressed and to daycare and got himself to work on time. And with no tears for me I might add. How the rest of the day will go, I am not sure.

Enjoy these pictures. Last night was the perfect time for Dan to play around with his new camera. If you want to see all the pictures, you can look here.

Just Claire....

Not the best video in the world, but she gives a few little smiles. Sorry it's so close up, but she was sitting on my legs so I could really lean back any further.

Enjoy! :0)

Happy Birthday to the Queen Bee of us all...

Wow.....91 Wonderful Years, and still looking good! :-)


How could we ever thank you enough for bringing this wonderful family together. I am sure I can speak for us all when I say we love you VERY VERY much

**and don't forget to check all the posts below - there have been quite a few in the last few days*

Tommy pulling in a nice tuna!

This video is compliments of Paul. Congrats on the awesome fish. Hope it was tasty!

*Word to the wise - if you are watching at work, keep the volume down!

Bad things happen in 3's

If I consider my near fatal heart attack with the police incident one, this most definitely has to be incident two!!!



Yup - some nice person out there somewhere decided is was ok to do this to my car and NOT leave a note! Who does that?!?! How they managed not to hit my mirror is another mystery. I'm figuring it had to have happened in Hoboken this weekend and I didn't notice when I got in the car last night. I found it this evening when I was going walking with my friend in the park.



This is NOT a good way to start off my week!!! GRRRRRRR!!!!!!! I hope the 3rd thing happens soon just to get it over with!!!

I hope everyone else's week is starting off better than mine!!!

Happy Birthday Emma & Aunt Amy (a little belated...)

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday Emma & Amy!
Happy Birthday to you!!

We hope Amy had a wonderful day on Friday and Emma has a wonderful day today! I know I am looking forward to seeing you both at the wedding.

Happy Birthday (yesterday) Peter!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETER!!! We hope you are having a great vacation and can't wait to celebrate with you when you both get back. We apologize for the delayed post but work was crazy and your other daughters apparently don't love you as much, but better late than never!!! =D

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR PETER!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Here 'Til June - Peace Corps Update

After not hearing from the Peace Corps in a long time, I decided to call and find out what was going on. I found out that I was originally nominated for a country that was not asthma-safe. Since I have an asthma restriction on my file, I won't be able to go to that country. Apparently asthma is a very serious restriction in Africa and there are only about 8 countries that I can go to. So after talking to my placement officer, my choices were to go to a November program and be a math teacher in Africa or wait until June and do health work in Africa, which was the job I had planned to do from the beginning. After many hours of constant debate in my head, debating with my best friend, making pro/con lists, and thinking myself in circles over and over again, I decided to wait until June and go for the job that I really want. In the meantime I will get a job or volunteer position in the health field (hopefully an HIV/AIDS department or clinic) to help prepare for this placement and I will get do all my preparations to apply to medical school while I am in Africa if that is still what I want to do at the end of the two years.

So anyway, that is my plan and my update for this long and annoying process of joining the Peace Corps. And, you are all stuck with me for another set of holidays, family gatherings, etc.

How about family weekend at the end of May next year???

Oh yea, and spread the word about this because not everyone reads the blog and I am obviously not going to call the whole family.

Happy Birthday Kristin!!

Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday to You!
Happy Birthday dear Kristin,
Happy Birthday to You!

We hope you had a wonderful day and moving wasn't too much stressful for you! :-)

Also, I usually like to add something to make your Monday mornings go by, but since Monday was a holiday, here are a few things to make your Tuesday morning go by a little quicker. Dan and I have been in South Carolina since Tuesday and we are leaving tomorrow afternoon. You can see some pictures of our trip on Claire's page and Dan's parents blog. We went and had "professional" pictures taken while we were here, so be sure to check out the new album on Claires page. Here is one of my favorites - let me know which one you like!

I hope everyone has a wonderful week. We can't wait to see everyone again at the Tommy and Sarahs' wedding.

HAPPY 21st BIRTHDAY ANDREW

Happy Birthday Andrew

Enjoy your first beer!

TECWAE

The Irish Blonde An attractive blonde from Dublin arrived at the casino and bet  twenty thousand dollars on a single roll of the dice. She said, 'I hope you don't mind, but I feel much luckier when I'm completely nude.'  With that, she stripped from the neck down, rolled the dice and yelled, 'Come on, baby, Mama needs new clothes!' As the dice came to a stop, she jumped up and down and squealed 'YES, YES, I  WON, I WON!' She hugged each of the dealers an d then picked up her winnings and her clothes and quickly departed. The dealers stared at each other dumb founded. Finally, one of them asked, 'What did she roll?'  The other answered, 'I don't know - I thought you were watching.' MORAL OF THE STORY Not all Irish are stupid; not all blondes are dumb; but all men are men.

A few shots from the weekend

Just a few pictures to get you through a Monday morning....We'll start with the family self portrait - can you believe I am already 2 months old??

I promise Daddy does wear a shirt sometimes. But, for Mommys birthday Claire slept until 9AM and then spent some time hanging out with Dad - do you think she enjoyed it?

On Friday, we ventured into Manhattan. Claire and our niece Gretchen both took their first subway ride and then we walked up to Central Park and hung out there for a while. I think Gretchen was having fun!
I think she especially liked spending time with her Auntie ;-)
And of course if we were in Manhattan, we had to venture into FAO Schwartz with the girls

Claire loves her new gift from Aunt AndreaAnd her new gift from Aunt Becky
And here is Gretchen meeting Claire
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend - enjoy your week!

Happy Birthday Meredith!!!

Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday to you!
Happy Birthday dear Meredith!
Happy Birthday to you!



Meredith had a very busy birthday weekend with Dave, Becky, and Gretchen visiting for the weekend. I'm sure she will fill you in on the details and pictures later but her best gift I think so got so far today was Miss Claire sleeping until 8:30 this morning!!! It must have been the excellent babysitter last night! :)

Rough Start #2

Seriously - Who's next?? Andrea had her rough start and I had mine. Hopefully no one else will have one. Let me first set the scene - Claires Uncle Dave, Aunt Becky, and cousin Gretchen are visiting us through Sunday. It was a feat to get the house clean this week, but we managed to do so. Dan picked them up from the airport yesterday and got back to the house around 9. Gretchen usually goes to bed at 8, so after she met Claire for a few minutes she ate dinner and we set the Pack & Play up in the nursery so she could lay down while the adults enjoyed sushi and good conversation. Dave & Becky are staying at a hotel but we decided it would be easier to just leave Gretchen here for the night since she was already passed out. Good thing we managed to get the house clean since she is a crawler!!

Claire had a quick feed while Dan was at the airport at 8, but it wasn't the usual late feeding she gets before we put her down for the night, and by late I mean around 9 or 10! We laid Claire down while we ate and don't you know she passed out! I woke her up around 10:30 to put on her pajamas, but she wanted nothing to do with eating. I debated just putting her down for the night, but I was nervous she would get up in the middle of the night and I knew I would already be getting up early with Gretchen. But, I put her down since she wouldn't wake up to eat. Dan left to bring Dave & Becky back to their hotel and I cleaned up from dinner, grabbed the baby monitor (excited to use it for the first time!), and went to bed. I just knew I would be getting up in the middle of the night to feed Claire!

Sure enough, Dan and I are awakened and staring each other in the eyes at 1:15 AM. It wasn't one of those romantic eye stares because something just woke the both of us up out of dead sleep. We heard the loudest sounds of glass shattering very close to us. I quickly realized that Dan's framed diploma fell of the mantel in the bedroom and completely crashed. Claire hadn't flinched even though it all happened right next to her cradle. So, there were Dan and I sweeping the floor at 1:15 AM because there is broken glass all over the floor. Of course it had to happen the first time we have had a crawler in the house - what are the chances of that? I had a meltdown blaming myself because I had moved the diploma to dust the mantel and I must have done something to cause this mess! We finally got it all cleaned up and I went back to bed wondering how in the world we are going to get his diploma fixed. It had etched glass and I bet the only place we can get it fixed is Clemson. I stopped worrying and got myself calm enough to get back to sleep, just as the baby monitor died on me, making an annoying noise. Are you kidding me???

A Rough Start

I had a rough start to my morning today so I thought I would share.

Last night I wasn't feeling great so I decided to go to bed really early and was happily asleep by 10PM (I said really early!) At around 5:15 this morning I heard my doorbell ringing and someone banging on my door. I was terrified! I live by myself and I don't have a peep hole and didn't have the guts to try to go peak out the window because I was scared whoever it was would see my blinds moving. With my luck it was an escapee from the jail about a 1/4 mile down the road looking for a place to go (well, not really, both those are the thoughts going through my mind!)

I sat there for a few minutes trying to figure out to do and it finally stopped. I debating going out and trying to find the number for the police but I was scared that someone may see the light and come back to the door. I didn't think this warranted a call to 911. I also debating calling some of my guy friends who live up the street but figured they wouldn't be so happy to hear from me at that hour of the morning! Then the person came back again!!! This time I got up and got dressed and got back into bed and just sat there. I don't know why I got dressed, but it seemed like the right thing to do haha. I knew I wouldn't fall back asleep but didn't want to start getting ready for work in case something happened. A little while later I saw some cop lights in my parking lot and I couldn't decide if that made me feel better or worse.

Finally around 6:45 I got up and called Peggy to see if I was crazy for calling the cops to see what was going on. I am so glad I did! Turns out that someone from my complex had called 911 for a medical emergency and didn't say what unit so they are looking for that person whom they eventually found. I felt much better! Then on my way out the door I bumped in to one of my neighbors and we started chatting about a car alarm that had also been going off since around 5AM and how annoying that was and I found out she works at my office!

So in the end it was good to meet some new neighbors, my heart rate has resumed a normal pace, and I have the Cops number in my phone that I sleep with just in case for next time! Hope everyone is having a good day!

TECWAE

Problem Name  The famous Olympic skier Picabo Street (pronounced Peek-A-Boo) is not just an athlete. She is now a nurse currently working at the Intensive Care Unit of a large metropolitan hospital.  She is not permitted to answer the hospital telephones. It caused too much confusion when she would answer the phon e and say,  Picabo

Splenda lovers?

Not that I think anyone shops here but I figured I would share just in case! Andrea


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Do you have something in there sweet for me?

How about a danish or a donut? Maybe some ice cream?

We had another wonderful time in Vermont. Claire seemed to enjoy herself and definitely enjoyed all the attention while we were there. Here are a few pictures from our trip....

Kevin was showing Emma that carrots grow underground. Emma pulled the carrot up and we all got to enjoy a fresh carrot from the garden.

On Sunday, Dan, Kristin, Nicole, and I took a trip to Waterbury and Stowe to visit a brewery Dan wanted to go to (surprise surprise!). On the way back we drove through Smugglers Notch and stopped to take a closer look and some pictures.
Heaven on earth - I love this picture!
I was in the kitchen and heard Kristin and Andrea yelling for me to come onto the porch. I thought something was wrong, but this is what I saw! And it has happened again since....
Emma was so good with Claire all weekend. She helped us get her dressed, bathe her, and Emma loved to put baby lotion on Claire - especially in her hair! :-)


If you haven't been to Vermont lately, you might have missed out on the guardians of the house - the voodoo dolls that Tina makes. Apparently there is a story behind each one, but we didn't hear them because Tina was recovering all weekend. We hope you feel better soon!
Cindy and Emma playing in the lake. The water was so warm!
Claires first time on the beach. This is pretty much what she did the whole time - hang out in her sun tent.
Love the little bathing suit.

The Jack and Jill

The Jack and Jill is Saturday Aug. 16th. Still lots of tickets available. Aanyone wishing to donate a raffle prize is encouraged to do so. (Regifting is allowed)  It starts at 6:00 p.m... Tickets are $20.00 per person or $35.00 a couple. Good Food...Good Friends.... Dancing and  a raffle. LIFE DON'T GET MUCH BETTER!!!!!! Hope to see you all there.

A few more family pictures

Claire got a little attention at Sarahs bridal shower. After the shower, Emma got to hold her cousin. Grandma kept Claire from being fussy with the old finger trick - we have since started using a pacifier.Paige was so good with Claire
Kristins little buddies - I think Joey is in love...
Sister Paula got to enjoy her two great nieces at the same time
And I couldn't leave you without a picture of our little redneck girl - check out that buddha belly!

more family pix

Just some cute pictures of Emma and family