Thursday, December 31, 2009

The Littlest Elf


She may have hit 9 lbs this week, but she still has spindly little elf legs in those tights! And she might look more like a garden gnome than elf maybe?

The Bearded One Cometh

Poor Sadie... just doesn't look very comfortable! But didn't seem any worse for wear either...

Sadie has been smiling some, but I can never catch one on film while she's awake! She slept through her brothers opening gifts (including hers!) but seemed happy enough about it!

The very first thing Liam said when he perused his pile of gifts was "Oh, it doesn't look like there is a two-wheel scooter... maybe next year..." Boy, was he thrilled when that seemingly boring rectangular box did INDEED reveal a two-wheel scooter! Now, if only spring would come so he could use it!

Eamon helped Sadie with her gifts, but as usual, he was the last one to open his own. Once the playdough kitchen came out, he was done for the day and just wanted to play!


Santa's bag was packed full of Legos and Colin has been in heaven building up a storm ever since!

Christmas Eve

Santa stopped by Uncle Mikey's house to see if the boys were being good. They were great that night, but it didn't necessarily make up for a year of "oopsies". Liam looked down-right terrified when Santa checked his list to see if he had been Naughty or Nice. He was relieved when Santa told him that he knew ALL ABOUT the time Liam cut open our feather comforter with scissors, releasing a veritable blizzard in our bedroom. He seemed a little TOO pleased to tell everyone what he had done! Colin didn't feel much better when he realized Santa knows every time he hides food he doesn't want around the house... including the bagel he hid in his shoe drawer. Of course, Santa didn't help matters much by saying that he loves bagels and would be happy to have Colin's scraps in the future... now when Colin doesn't want to eat something on his plate (every day), he pretty much figures Santa will eat it for him. Eamon somehow got away scot-free for all the things he has done this year which is pretty impressive if you add them all up! Turns out they were all good enough to get presents after all.... who knew??? Of course, Sadie has been perfect so far but I venture to say that by this time next year, she'll have some escapades under her belt too!









Wednesday, December 2, 2009

It's a girl!!

Sadie Catherine was born at 6:29pm on Saturday November 21st, 2009 weighing in at 8 lbs 3oz and 19.5 inches long.

She is quite the Diva already... waiting a full week after her due date to be fashionably late and then being extremely impatient with the whole process and practically being born in the car! Thanks to Chris' Formula One driving skills and the fact that the cop we passed doing 85 in a 30 didn't bother to stop us, we did make it to the hospital with about 9 minutes to spare!

Her brothers are extremely enamored with her and even crazy Eamon is in love and amazingly gentle! And even though it's taken 5 weeks to get this blog post actually updated with some words... things are going very well, even though it does seem to take an extra hour to get us all out of the house these days!


Sadie's First Day

Her coming home outfit!

Love those cheeks!

First time wearing pink (it seems to have infiltrated every inch of the house by now!) The boys love those panda feet!
The first time the boys got to hold her!
Sleeping, sleeping, sleeping, leave me alone already!

Big eyes (we think they MIGHT turn brown!), milk drunk, are you looking at me?, this hand is tasty! I love all the newborn funny looks.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Halloween 2009

I was sick and grumpy on Halloween and Eamon refused to cooperate himself so the photos are few and far between this year. Here is the little Master Yoda gearing up for trick-or-treating. He was a little hesitant to approach the houses (particularly ones with scary music and/or big clowns handing out candy). He did bravely go to a few houses, but his loot was paltry this year which is just right for him so we didn't mind! And once he got home, he promptly forgot all about the candy so no harm, no foul!

The big guys really enjoyed trick-or-treating and had fun. Here they are getting into the spirit before we headed out. It is a strange, multi-generational fantasy battle ensuing here.... Colin is Anakin Skywalker and Liam, of course is "Dark Vader" as he calls him. However, they haven't seen all the Star Wars movies so they are still a bit confused about the fact that Anakin is really Darth Vader as a younger, and albeit, more benevolent, Jedi. Either way, they were happy to wield their light sabers and that's all that mattered to them.


Colin is so into art right now and he does such a nice job on things that I thought his rendition of Trick-or-treating (complete with his little Jack-o-lantern candy bucket) was a lot better than any of the photos I took! I particularly like the moon and stars in the night sky!

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Friday, October 30, 2009

Colin's Birthday, Part I

Poor Colin is getting a bit shafted this year since my duedate is only three days after his birthday. We can't predict exactly when this new baby will arrive so we've been up in the air about when to celebrate the Big Guy's 6th birthday. Luckily, MaryKate was happy to share her family party this weekend! Colin wanted a jack-o-lantern cake this year because he is currently missing his own front teeth! They're growing in fast though so we figured this was our only shot to photograph the two jack-o-lanterns together! This year was all about Star Wars Lego sets for Colin. He is really phenomenal at putting the tiny little pieces together and Liam loves them too! We let Liam and Eamon have a mini-celebration for their Half-Birthdays. Liam really only wanted to blow out some candles so, again, MaryKate obliged! The cousins tend to spoil the boys, can you tell? Colin is going to have another party at the end of the month for his school friends so I don't think he'll feel too left out. Plus, he seems pretty excited about having a new brother or sister so we hope that salves the pain a little bit!

Inclement weather!


Last week, we did our local walk to raise money for Juvenile Diabetes. Unfortunately, it was freezing cold and pouring rain out, but the good news was they shortened the route a bit and I DIDN'T go into labor! A big thanks to Kelly and the kids for coming out in the cold to walk with us and to everyone who donated money to the cause. We're hoping for big things to happen during Eamon's lifetime, and any little bit helps!


By that afternoon, the rain had turned to snow which thrilled the boys to no end! They actually found a way to make snowballs from the dusting we got.

And they discovered that wet, slippery leaves are just as good as snow for sledding! I wasn't quite ready for snow in October, but the boys will take it any way they can get it!

Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Apple Picking

Our yearly outing to the orchard was as good as ever! The boys must have eaten a bushel out in the orchard, nevermind the ones we're still snacking on at home. I fully admit, we'd go to this particular orchard for the dumplings alone and they're always worth it!
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Saturday, October 3, 2009

Disaster Weekend

Christopher's buddy persuaded us to go up to Loon Mountain for the Highland Games this year which was a fantastic idea... in principle. Unfortunately the whole week started off on the wrong foot when Eamon got sick and couldn't keep any food down which necessitated our first-ever usage of his glucagon, an event I hope never to have to repeat. That same night, Colin got the pukies as well, a lovely gift from the cesspool we are discovering is Kindergarten. Luckily all he required was some cleanup and he was back to 100% bright and early the next morning. As the weekend approached and we were on day 5 of the Puke-Free Zone, we thought we were in the clear. However, after driving 3 hours and making it up to the mountain, Little Liam tossed his cookies in front of the entire crowd waiting to get on the shuttle to the Games. I figured I'd just take the kids to the hotel, wait for it to pass and then enjoy the rest of the weekend after Chris got done with the Whiskey Tasting he and his friends had tickets for... which would have been LOVELY if the hotel hadn't messed up our reservations... and we discovered there were NO HOTEL ROOMS AVAILABLE IN A ONE-HOUR RADIUS. While Chris tried to secure housing, I did what any mom of three boys would do (right?) and took the boys mini-golfing! Liam held up pretty well and enjoyed most of it, but didn't make it more than a few minutes after the 18th hole before he was sick again. Homeless, still, we spent some time on a local playground with a train theme which just thrilled Eamon. So, the day was not a complete bust. Thankfully Chris' friends gave up their hotel room for us and bunked with some locals and we had a bed to call our own that night. The next morning started out lovely, Liam seemed to be ALL BETTER. Until he threw up in the hotel pool (ooops). We still trudged up the mountain after that and he did perk up a lot and we got to see some of the Highland pipers. Mostly, however, the boys mostly enjoyed non-Game related events... like a random golf cart they found and running up and down bleachers. The crowning moments included going up the gondola to the top of the mountain where we went on a hunt for the Lost Loon Gold Mine through some glacial caves. The big boys really enjoyed it a ton, and Eamon and I did as much as his mini legs and my non-so-mini belly could manage. Not a completely HORRIBLE weekend, but I wouln't like to recreate it anytime soon, I can tell you that...



Friday, October 2, 2009

First soccer game of the season

The boys had a great showing in their first soccer game. They both scored multiple goals and had a lot of fun! Eamon mostly enjoys running around the rest of the playing fields being his usual nutty self.
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You know it's October when...

the hats come out of storage, you can't stop making pumpkin cupcakes, pumpkin pancakes, pumpkin pasta, pumpkin everything, Master Yoda gets his costume, the Halloween jammies make an appearance, and cuddling up on the couch requires blankets again!
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Monday, September 28, 2009

Marathon Weekend of Fun

I'm already growing behind in documenting our weekend adventures! There never seems to be enough hours in the day to get the essentials done, never mind the extras. But we'd rather spend time out enjoying ourselves than sitting at home doing all of our never-ending projects so time slips by very quickly and nothing seems to get accomplished but a good deal of fun! We spent a jam-packed weekend starting out with some friends at Edaville Railroad and then onto Boston where we stayed over and spent the rest of the weekend wandering the city. Here's some evidence:


Eamon very much loves Thomas the Train (really, any train, or ANY machine of any type right now but trains have a special place in his heart). Edaville had a Day Out With Thomas which we couldn't miss! The train ride itself was pretty slow-going but the boys got to meet Thomas in the "flesh", er... metal, and really enjoyed the rides! In the top middle you can see the Thomas character "Sir Topham Hat" who was extremely creepy looking but the big boys didn't seem to mind. Eamon was a little less thrilled to see him though he did finally approach him for a minute!

The big boys are pretty much past Thomas at this age, but they REALLY enjoyed all the rides. Even Eamon was super excited about them and went on every one he could! Colin and Liam had their first taste of the ferris wheel which thrilled them. I sat out some of the more raucous rides, hoping not to scramble the baby too much, giving Christopher the distince pleasure of going it alone on all the nausea-inducing ones! Liam and I did ride the rocket one together which he loved and I took a mild swing on the teacups with the bigger two. They all proved to be budding Red Barons and loved the airplanes on the way out!


The boys are really into space right now so after an exhuberant night in the hotel (we had a nice corner room of windows and the boys spent countless hours staring off into the night cityscape--free entertainment!) After a mandatory outing to the heated pool in the morning, we walked to the Museum of Science to check out their newest exhibits. Even Chris was impressed with the virtual space ride and we spent quite a bit of time going through the new Black Holes exhibit which had something for everyone (even Eamon, who spent most of his time there weaving his stroller maniacally between other patrons, much to his glee). In the end, though, they were happiest just riding the T around which was even more fun, they assured us, than an outing to the Curious George bookstore. Next time, we save our money and just buy them their own Charlie cards and set them free.

A true testament to the weekend! Liam fell asleep practically standing up about one minute after we got into the house on Sunday night! And the rest of us weren't far behind!

Friday, September 11, 2009

Soccer stars

The big boys started soccer this week and loved their first practice. They have strict instructions not to fight with each other on the field and so far they have made good on it! We'll see how the first game goes on Saturday though!

Liam was thrilled that his best buddy Emma was on his team and her dad is the coach!


Colin looking like a pro even though he's never kicked a ball around before!

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Big changes afoot.

The biggest news is that Colin started Kindergarten! He got a TINY bit nervous on the way into the bus, but said he had a great day after that. He loves his teacher and already made her two drawings after he got off the bus!

The biggest news "afoot" for the litte guy is that we bought everyone new school shoes and he just HAD to have "Melmo slippers". We generally vow not to buy character-themed clothing items.. but here is the little guy in Spiderman jammies and his new Elmo slippers. He loves them so much that he wore them to the bus stop this morning to see Colin off!


The big boys actually working together, helping daddy set up their new bunk beds!!

Eamon, not so much helping, as... wreaking havoc on the pile of screws and such.
Mr. Top-Bunk. He is THRILLED to be the "big guy" and they are getting used to having to share a space in anticipation of the New Baby taking over Liam's room. There's a bit more talking before they fall asleep, but once Liam goes back to preschool next week, I think they'll be too tired to cause any trouble at bedtime!


Mr. Bottom-Bunk. Doesn't he look so tiny in that huge bed?!?!?!

Off Colin goes... college can't be far off at this point...