Time Continuum

It has basically snowed every single day for the past week if not longer. I can't remember a day that it didn't snow, that Roland wasn't outside all night long cleaning it up or that my truck hasn't needed to be cleared off after work. I feel like I have lived the SAME day over and over and over. WTF? Seriously, we need a break!

Newest Band

After Seth's party was over and the little bean was tucked in bed we broke out Rock Band to show Sheryl and Jess. Of course they wanted to try it and ultimately LOVED IT! We all played until about midnight.

We all switched up roles in the band and I even sang, thank goodness no one caught that on video or camera. Everyone enjoyed playing it and trying each role. I wish I could play the guitar or the drums, but I'm just not coordinated AT ALL! Oh, well it is fun to watch.

Party Pics a Week Late

Sorry these pics are a week late and Seth is now 3 yrs, 1 week old, but it has been a busy week.

Seth's Diego Cake
Blowing out the candles

I think he got more stuff than at Christmas time.

(Yes I spilled on my big fat belly in this pics too!)

The kiddos during one of their "down" times during the party.

They were watching Imagination Movers.

The party was awesome and the turnout from our family was 99% (Uncle Justin & Uncle Eric couldn't make the party). It was a perfect night and Seth had a wonderful time. Thank you to everyone for joining us.

Introducing...

I hope that Nina doesn't mind me posting these pics, but I've been asked to share them so I am. Nina's mom emailed me last night with all of the details about baby Lulu.
Big sister Grace with her new little sister Lulu

Lulu Ruby Gilbert

Born on January 28, 2009 @ 12:17am

7lbs. 8oz. 20 inches long

The whole family is doing great and I'm anxiously awaiting to here from Nina when she gets home and settled in.

Catching Up

It has been a busy and snow filled week so I'm a bit behind on all of the birthday happenings from last weekend. We definitely celebrated ALL weekend long and by Sunday we were all exhausted. Friday night after our dinner at Applebees we took Seth to the mall for a his third annual birthday photo booth and after three years we still screw it up every time. We never look at the right spot. It is a fun family tradition and we will continue to do it next year when we will squeeze four people into the photo booth.After our photo booth we let Seth go in the arcade and he had a blast. Take a look...

He also played his very favorite game, the MTV drum game where you basically pick a song and play the drums for about three minutes. HE LOVES IT!

Tomorrow I will post some picks from the big family party last Saturday night.

Also, a BIG CONGRATULATIONS to our WONDERFUL FRIENDS NINA & JOHN....

THEY WELCOMED A BRAND NEW BABY GIRL INTO THEIR FAMILY EARLY THIS MORNING!

Welcome Lulu Ruby Gilbert! We can't wait to meet you this summer. You will have a new friend in about 6 weeks! She will be very anxious to meet you. Love to you all!

Going to Tease You!

Sorry to have to do this to you all, but I can't resist. We have the full name picked out for the baby as of 6:30am this morning. Roland was in charge of the middle name since he did such an amazing job with Seth's middle name. He came up with a list of about 8 or 9 and he let me look them over. I narrowed it down to about 3 and then we both picked the same one. The decision is final and we are ready for her now! Stay tuned all of you guessers!

Don't Go to Applebees

We let Seth decide where we went out to dinner on Friday night since it was his birthday. We thought we would go to either Applebees or Texas Roadhouse since they both sang to people for their birthdays. Seth said Applebees so away we went. I think I was more excited for him than anything. So we get there and tell the waitress that it is his birthday and request that he be sang to. Her reply was, "Sorry we stopped doing that 4 months ago!" I was SOOOO disappointed that I actually wanted to get up and leave. My poor little guy, I wanted to make his night extra special and now nothing! We decided to stay and they did bring him out a special birthday sundae, but I want to take him to Texas Roadhouse this week and have them sing to him to make it up to him. Not that he knows the difference, but he would love it and we would love to see the joy in his face when he is made to feel special for a night.Lesson learned... DON'T GO TO APPLEBEES IF YOU WANT TO BE SUNG TO OR HAVE SOMEONE SUNG TO!

Party at Pat's

On Friday I sent the cookies that Seth and I decorated to Pat's so that he could share them with his friends. Unfortunately there weren't very many kids there that day, but there were enough to still make it special for him. I also sent my camera so that Pat could capture the memories that I would be missing while I was at work.
I can't believe that she actually got them all to smile and look at the camera at the same time!

Looks like they had a great time. Right after this was taken and the kiddos ate their treats Roland came and picked Seth up early so that they could spend the afternoon together. Roland had grand plans to take Seth sledding, but Seth's request was to go to Pepsi and visit all the people he loves who work there. What the heck???

Closer Look

The babies room is still a work in progress, but everyday we get a little closer to having it be complete. Here is what is complete:

* paint ~ DONE

* chair rail ~ DONE

* crib raised ~ DONE

* bedding assembled ~ DONE

* dresser purchased and in the room ~ DONE

* book shelf in the room ~ DONE

Here is what needs to be completed:

* organize clothes and put them in the dresser

* clean out closet

* buy a lamp shape for the lamp on the dresser

* pick up rocking chair when it comes in and assemble it

* organize books and purchase letters for her wall

* buy the last few items we need on my list

I'd say we are making definite progress! Here are a few updated picks, but I will take more this weekend too!

color and chair railcrib placementside view of cribcloser look at the bedding

I still need to take pictures of the dresser and bookshelf in the room and I will do that this weekend.

Happy Official Birthday Buddy!

Last night we started to prep for the big birthday weekend. We started by frosting and decorating the cookies that he took to Pat's to share with his friends today. He REALLY wanted to eat the M&M's that he was told were for the cookies, but he did cooperate and put them on the cookies.

Carefully placing 5 M&M's on his cookies

The finished products

The official taste test

Later in the evening we pulled out all of the goodies for the party and started to clean the house. This morning Seth was awoken was by off-key parents singing him "Happy Birthday!" He had the hugest smile on his face and started laughing at us. Then, I ran to Dunkin Donuts and got him his favorite donut which he ate in my bed while watching Imagination Movers. (He's is not spoiled today is he?) He is at Pat's until after nap time and then Daddy is picking him up 2 hours early to spend the rest of the afternoon together. Tonight we are going out to dinner and then to the mall for our 3rd annual photo booth birthday picture! It will be a busy, fun filled birthday night!

Looking Back

My mind is going around and around today thinking back over the past 3 years. I have been one of those crazy camera toting moms who captures every single memory. I saved a few on my computer at work so these are the best of the best that I have on hand in no special order.

Innocent little bean
Squeezable, lovable cheeks!

I can stand up!

My big brother is a pug!

So adventurous!

One of my FAVORITE pictures of ALL time!

Brotherly LOVE!

Always to independent!

Such a pudge!

"I want that camera Mommy!"

Tomorrow is the BIG day and I almost forgot about our annual photo booth picture. I need to call the arcade at the mall to make sure they still have a photo booth. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Quote

Love this qoute...

"If you're walking down the right path and your're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."
~ Barack Obama

1 MORE DAY

Tomorrow is the big day, our little, not so little boy will turn 3! Holy Crap! I (We) can't believe that he is not a baby anymore, he is a little man and he will be 3 years old. Seriously, after the first year I have no idea where the time has gone. We have so much fun all the time that time literally flies by. Tonight we are going to decorate cookies to take to Pat's for all of his friends and Roland just told me that he plans to pick Seth up right after his nap tomorrow and spend the rest of the afternoon with the birthday boy. Seth will be so excited. Then we plan to take him out dinner to either Texas Roadhouse or Applebees where they can sing to him. He will LOVE that. Saturday is his big birthday party and since we have such a large family I think that there will be about 20 people at our house to celebrate with us. It will be a jam packed birthday weekend!

On a side note...the babies room is about 60% done. The painting and chair rail are COMPLETE! Last night after touch ups Roland lifted the mattress up the highest level and I put all the bedding together on the bed. Tonight we will get the dresser and move the bookshelf into her room. Then I can tackle the closet and get everything organized. (I secretly LOVE that part!) We ordered the rocking chair and that will arrive next week. After that it will just be odds and ends to pick up and pull the room together. I found this amazing website that specializes in wall letters. I picked out the kind that are on individual canvas' so we just need to pick out the font and design for them and order! We still have 7 weeks give or take so we are in good shape.

Super Bowl Time

I personally don't care about football or The Super Bowl, but this year is extra special because Ro's favorite team is in it and he is so excited. It is also reminiscent of three years ago when The Steeler's were also in the Super Bowl and we were first time parents. Seth was about 2 weeks old and we watched the game and layed a "Terrible Toddler Towel" over him in his bassinet.Now it is 3 years later (OMG!) and we will watch the game with our amazing 3 year old son!

Tackle Time

We went to our friends house for dinner and the Steeler's game on Sunday night. The dads are both HUGE Steeler's fans so it was tense at times and happy at times. I think that the boys could sense the frustration so they decided to take out their stress on Kristen. See below pics...

Keep in mind that I'm not helping get the boys off her, yet taking as many photos as I can while they squish her. It was so funny. We figured it out that she had 75 lbs. on top of her!

Ten minutes later they were calm as can be and Kristen read them a book. It was a very fun night and the food was to die for. The Steeler's won so both dads are thrilled that they will be in the Super Bowl. Thanks so much for having us!

1/2 Way There

Our painter is 95% done as of this afternoon. All he has left is to finish up some trim work tomorrow. Then our job is to hang the chair rail and put the room together. Here is a glimpse of the color. Remember there will ultimately be a white chair rail around the middle.I love the colors and can't wait to get the crib set out and together to see how it all comes together. In other news... we went on the hunt for a dresser for the baby and came out stressed and unsure of what to do. The dressers we saw were either overpriced, cheaply made or not our style. So last night I racked my brain thinking of places that sold dressers. I came up with Pier 1 and Burlington Coat Factory's Baby Depot (BCFBD). This morning bright and early Seth and I headed out to look and I was super excited to find two very nice dressers at BCFBD that I really like. Now Roland needs to check them out and we need to get one ASAP. I really want to start unloading the closet and getting things organized. Pics to come!

Celebratory Weekend

Once the snow stopped on Saturday we drove up to Lowville to celebrate my Grandma's 81st birthday with her. Seth was very excited because she has a giant keyboard that he loves to play with and he MAKES everyone dance while he plays. It is the funniest thing you will ever see. Picture a group of adults ranging in age from 30 to 84 dancing together in my Gram's living room. If you don't want to dance, you HAVE to because Seth is very adamant about it and won't take no for an answer. Anyhow, everyone was excited to see him and we had a fun night celebrating my Gram's birthday.

We went to dinner at a local restaurant and I thought that it was neat that they brought out some dough for Seth to shape and mold into whatever he wanted and they said when he was done, they would fry it up and turn it into fried dough for his dessert. It kept him busy for a bit and was a neat experience for him.

In the end he didn't like the taste of it so of course I ate it and it was yummy!

Blizzard

We woke up Saturday morning to an absolute and utter blizzard here in Watertown. All of the screens on the windows had blown in snow on them so you couldn't see a thing out the windows. The wind was blowing side ways and the snow was up to Roland's hips. We tried to let the dog out the back door and it instantly covered his whole body. He turned halfway way around and looked at us like, "Do I have to go?" So after two hours outside, Roland had dug us out. He is really hoping that we don't get anymore snow because he really has no where to put it. Our banks are so high and most of it is pushed onto the side of our neighbors house.

I didn't take any pictures of the front of the house because I couldn't get to it. The funny thing is, by right around 11:45am the snow stopped and the sun came out and it was beautiful for the rest of the day. So we got 2 feet of snow in a 7 hour period!

History Lesson

To make a very long story short, we are refinancing our house and taking advantage of the super low interest rates and in the process we have had to locate all sorts of paperwork needed to fulfill the application. I had to find the deed to the house as well as our abstract. Not knowing what either looked like I searched and searched and finally found the deed, but no abstract. In a panic I spoke with our loan officer who also happens to be the parent of one of my students. So she and I did some detective work and finally found out that Roland and I were never given our abstract when we bought the house and that in fact it was at a title company in SYR. The company agreed to FedEx it to us and one day later it was in our hands. Thank goodness.

Here is where my story gets interesting... I looked through it and found out all sorts of interesting information about our house. Here are a few of the details...

* It was built in 1923 and the first owners bought it for $4000
* There have been 5 owners before us.
* The longest that a family occupied it was from 1968-1997 (29 years)
* The people who bought it in 1968 paid $14,500.00 and sold it for $61,500.00 in 1997. That is a HUGE profit as I'm sure it was paid for.
* The woman who we bought it from in 2002 made $22,000.00 for only living in it from 1997 until we bought it in 2002.

There were many other interesting facts that I won't bore you with, but I found it fascinating to read through. I only wish that there was an original floor plan/design so we could see what it originally looked like and what has been added on over the years now. So there is a little part of the history of our house! Let's see if our family can beat the 29 year record for living in it. 7 years down and many more to go...

Pregnancy Brain

In case I forget over the weekend...

Happy Birthday to my Step-Mom Sue on Sunday!

Happy Birthday to my Grandma on Monday!

We hope that you both have wonderful birthdays!

Why do we live here?

Seriously... could this winter be any longer? We have had snow, rain, sleet, freezing rain and now we are going through a deep freeze. I miss miss miss the outdoors. I miss taking walks, bike rides and going to the playground. I had thought about starting a countdown to spring, but it is still so far away that a countdown might make the time seem even longer than it is. We have been trying to get Seth up to Dry Hill for a ski lesson for 3 weeks now. First it rained and it has been sooooooooo cold for the past two weeks that we haven't been able to get up there. Poor little guy!

Tonight we are headed to Kidnastics thank goodness. Seth can run and play for 45 minutes and get all of that energy out.

On another note, the painter started yesterday and he accomplished the ceiling, one coat of the pink and a little bit of the brown. What a change! It is starting to look like an actual little girls room. I will take some pictures this weekend of the progress and by Monday I would think he would be done. It's so EXCITING!

I also went to the docs for my appointment yesterday and all is well. She is measuring normal, strong heart beat and everything is going along as planned.

Taking Shape

We have been way too slow with the prep for the babies room, but today that is all changing. The painter started today so I can't wait to get home and see the progress. I'm not sure what I am more excited about... not having to paint it myself (ourselves) or the painting process and completion of the room itself? BOTH I guess! So I will start posting pics as soon as I can. We are also dresser hunting and rocking chair buying this weekend. Then it will all come together. Can't believe there are only 8 weeks to go. YIKES!

Thank You

Thank you to our friends The Richards! We had a great time at dinner last night and playing Wii Fit was super fun. I can't wait to try it without my added baby weight. We will see you all seperately on Friday night between Kidnastics and Joe's! Have a great rest of the week and stay warm!

Determination

My friend Kristen and her family went to Disney last week so I asked her if she would pick up my all time favorite treat from Downtown Disney. See picture below... It is the biggest, thickest, yummiest rice crispy treat in the whole world WITH chocolate on top.


So you might be thinking that it would be easy for her to pick it up on her travels and just bring it home with her last weekend right? Well, not for Kristen, nothing lately seems to be easy for her. After being gone for three weeks over the holidays she gets a call on the morning they are to return saying that their furnace wasn't working and that there house was currently 35 degrees. In a panic they contact people to get the ball rolling to get the furnace fixed and head home as quickly as possible, BUT without my special treat. It was forgotten in the hustle and bustle. Would I have minded? No way, I would have totally understood and gone without.



Well, Kristen wouldn't have that and she asked her mom to have it shipped to Watertown. Two days later it was personally delivered to my door and I ate about a quarter of it last night. That is true friendship across the miles!



There was also a special treat in the box for Seth, which he thoroughly enjoyed!
Thank you Kristen for all of your trouble. We both enjoyed our treats very very much!