The BIG Update! - Part I

Not too sure where to begin, but I will try to catch up on everything that has been going on in the last few months...

First, November...we really enjoyed celebrating the holidays with family and friends this year. We had a great Thanksgiving at my parents house with lots of family including a visit from my cousin Deborah, her husband Grant and their new baby Kendall. It was an interesting day that started with Lauren waking up with some itchy spots all over her body, this resulted in a trip to the pediatrician before the big feast. You gotta love a pediatrician who is willing to meet you at the office on Thanksgiving Day!! He checked Lauren out and could not rule out that these spots were not chicken poxs, which resulted in John getting his chicken pox vaccination right there on the spot. I am sure it was just what he wanted on Thanksgiving! The spots never developed into anything more and so it still remains a mystery as to what caused her to have such a rash.

December is always chock full of activities, from cutting down our own tree, to riding on the Polar Express and having breakfast with Santa at the Lyme Firehouse. The kids enjoy every minute of all the excitement! We had a quiet Christmas morning spent at our house in Guilford opening gifts and enjoying Daddy's omelets before headed over to my Mom and Dad's house in the afternoon for more gift opening and dinner with family. It was during this day and a conversation with my Aunt Marcia that I started to have a sneaking feeling that we would be spending our next Christmas somewhere else...We rang in the New Year at home on the sofa. I don't think I even made it to midnight and we didn't watch any of the hype instead we rented a movie and called it a night. Actually, it was very nice to spend a New Year's this way. After all the activities that surround Christmas it was a nice way to decompress.

In January we celebrated Kathryn's 3rd Birthday with a party at Stay N' Play with a bunch of her best buddies. She had a superhero themed party and she requested that I make her a cake with pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles, and so I did. She proudly holds up her three fingers whenever she is asked how old she is! She is such a hoot to be around, she can be the silliest and the sweetest child at times, and she still remains the loudest of the three! She thinks she is a princess and she prances, dances and sings her way around the house. I am pretty sure her brother out weighs her petite frame, but her feet continue to grow at an exponential rate, seriously, her feet are almost as big as Lauren's!! She is starting to become very independent dressing herself, using the potty herself, putting on her own shoes. She has been completely potty trained for some time and just recently started to not wear diapers at night. She is still very much in love with her blankie and her thumb!! She has other items that she gets attached to as well, these tend to rotate but currently it is a princess doll and a little Winnie the Pooh stuffed animal. I cannot wait to see what this year holds for her...it's going to be a big year, she starts preschool in the fall! I love you precious Kiki, you bring lots of smiles to Mommy's face : ).

I admit it...

...I am really bad about keeping up with this journal. I want to be better at it because I want to be able to look back on this time with my three lovely children and remember all the cute and not so cute things that occurred.

Well, they are lovely until they refuse to go to BED...like right NOW! So far I have been interrupted twice in the one minute I have been trying to type this...and now I hear another eruption up there...off I go for the third time!!!! Oh, how I dread bedtime with the girls! Lauren and Kathryn share a room and most nights things go smoothly with our routine (bathroom, brush and bed) but it's nights when Daddy is not around, they sense something is up and then proceed to drive me "through the roof". Okay, I think they have it worked out...on to the good stuff...how is everyone doing and what has everyone been up to this past month. Shall we start with the oldest or youngest?


Lauren - The Trials and Tribulations of Kindergarten
We had our very first "official" parent-teacher conference a couple of weeks ago. I say official because we had conferences in pre-school, but this was the first conference Keith and I attended together. November 10th was an interesting day. I told Lauren that Daddy and I were going to meet with her teacher later in the day and she immediately broke down in tears and said, "she's not going to say nice things about me." I slipped into a moment of speechlessness (which doesn't happen often) and then I gathered myself back-up and started to question why she thought the teacher felt this way about her...which I was sure was a big misunderstanding and not the case at all. Of course Lauren couldn't remember the circumstances surrounding the incident in which the teacher showed dislike towards her. We went through several moments of torturous screaming as she told me she could not remember. I reassured her that I was not going to be mad but that I needed to hear the story....and so it flowed..."I tackled Alex." That was it. I was kind of shocked. My next questions were why? and did he get hurt?. Alex did not get hurt. The why is a little dicey...something along the lines of he was chasing her friend Anna and he was supposed to be sitting. This resulted in Lauren getting a sticker taken away and now Lauren wants nothing to do with Alex and is adamant that he NOT be invited to her next birthday party. Lauren still continues to be very quiet at school and to bring her out of her shell they give her stickers every time she speaks...sometimes she comes home with eight or nine on her shirt...YEAH! I was very shy in school as a child too, so I get it. I just want her to have fun and from the sounds of it she is loosening up.

Lauren has also been going to a program at her school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings where she gets to enjoy more "free-play" and arts-n-crafts (lots and LOTS of art which she LOVES!) So Tuesdays and Thursdays are long days for her but she seems to be enjoying it and tolerating the longer day...good practice for 1st Grade! She is eager to start swimming lessons so that is next on her agenda. She did soccer in the fall but Keith was not impressed with the program...apparently I signed her up for the wrong one, so we will try again in the spring.

Oh, she lost another tooth while eating carrots and swallowed it, we never found it, and I NEVER looked for it!!



Kathryn - Our almost THREE year old...who is in the midst of her TERRIBLE TWO's!
Little, petite, sweet, little (ooops, did I say that already) Kathryn....yeah, not so MUCH, not this month anyway. Can you guess who gets the brunt of her hits, kicks and head bops???? The only person who doesn't fight back....YET...John. The thing with Kathryn is she doesn't care about going to her room or getting a slap on her wrist...she will do it ten times a day. She is quick to apologize and hug and then bop him on the head again, UGH! She is becoming adamant about many, many things. She has definitely learned that she has a voice and she WILL be heard! My favorite is when she tells me "that's not nice" and then she wraps her arms around herself like she is hugging herself and stomps away...gotta get a picture of this. This time too shall pass and then she can go back to being her little, petite, sweet, little self!

She has some interesting taste in movies for a two year old...she went from watching Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (Johnny Depp's version) to the Wizard of Oz. For Halloween she wanted to be the Wicked Witch, not Glenda the Good Witch...just shows you a little bit about her personality. She does also enjoy watching Tom and Jerry and Looney Toons.

Some shining moments from this past month...She held a toilet plunger (unused) over her shoulder and started making little shooting noises as she marched around the house. She painted the carpet in our friends basement a nice orange color during one of our Friday night pizza party nights. She walked around the house one day in nothing but her underwear and her sisters yellow rain boots. She is a real hoot! Total goofball! She loves her gymnastics class and as a matter of fact when I asked her who should come to her Birthday party, she replied, "Mrs. C." (the gymnastics teacher) and that was it.


John Logan our BIG "Little Boy"
John has been into everything these days...he loves to play in the cupboards (especially with the sponges under the kitchen sink) and drawers and remove everything one by one. He loves to unroll the toilet paper in the bathroom. I think we need to kick start the baby proofing.

He had his one year check-up on November 2nd and he weighed in at 22 lbs 2oz and measured 30 inches long. He has eight teeth, four on top and four on the bottom. He loves to give high fives. He stands on his own for extended periods of time and then plops down on his bottom. He has really started to enjoy table food. He eats a variety of foods and he eats well...a few of his favorites are peanut butter crackers, bananas, yogurt and mac n' cheese. He has started to crawl up the stairs and is just getting the hang of scooting back down the stairs.

He continues to be a very layed back baby. The doctor even commented on it at his last visit. He asked me what his personality was like as he was just sitting on the exam table letting the doctor do his thing...and I said "well, he is like this." And the doctor replied that he gets a very good "vibe" from John. I then told him how I was sure I was going to be "in-for-it" when he got a little older and he replied, "I think you will be just fine." What a relief!!

I will try to post some new pictures soon so you can see how grown up everyone is getting!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy 1st Birthday Sweet Boy!

Where has this past year gone? I really cannot believe that our little baby is a year old. I love watching John grow, learn and explore and cannot wait to see the little boy that he becomes. I can remember the emotions and excitement of meeting him a year ago. It was kind of a dreary rainy day (much like yesterday) but that didn't matter because everything was right and perfect in that tiny hospital room. We had been blessed with a little BOY! He was so darn cute with that perfectly round "c-section" head all swaddled up in his blanket with his blue "homie" hat on which was tied with an orange ribbon. I was so exhausted yet I couldn't take my eyes off of him and just wanted to cuddle and hold him as much as I could. I was content and my heart was full.

I'll admit I was nervous about coming home with a new baby when I had two little girls to take care of at home as well. My nerves were eased when Dr. G, the kids pediatrician, told me that it was much easier to go from two to three children then from one to two...and I have to say I agree with him. I am not sure if it is because you are already used to juggling things and so juggling one more is not so overwhelming; OR, and this just came to me last night as I was going to sleep...it may be the age difference between Kathryn and John, they are closer in age which may seem more difficult at first but they both nap and that makes things soooooo much easier.

Oh, Baby John we are so smitten with you....we LOVE you so MUCH and cannot imagine our lives without you.

Happy First Birthday Sweet Boy!

Love,

Mama

Chicken Chili Recipe

So, I am kind of tired of the same old beef chili. I have decided I am not the biggest fan of ground beef unless it is in the form of a hamburger, so I went in search of a chicken chili recipe. I came accross several that sounded great but not perfect and so I piece mealed one together with the ingredients I had available...

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, grilled and cut into bite size pieces
1 TBSP Vegetable Oil
1 Medium onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, pressed
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. oregano
2 cans of chicken broth
2 4 oz. cans of green chopped chilis
1 can of corn
2 15 oz. cans of white beans, drained
1 15 oz. can of red beans, drained

Grill the chicken breast. While breasts are grilling heat the oil in a large saucepan. Then, dice the onion and press the garlic and saute until the onion is clear. Add the oregano, pepper, green chilis, broth and corn. Let simmer for 15 minutes and then add the chicken and beans.

Enjoy with a dollop of sour cream and some cheese!

Our NOT so LITTLE Tidbit

So, a while back I mentioned that I had a tidbit to share with you all. Well, the story didn't exactly go as planned, which is why it has taken me a little bit longer than I expected to share this news. We decided to expand our family one more time...and now we are the proud adoptive parents of a three year old chocolate lab named Bodhi. Now, let me tell you what we went through to get to this point and then you will understand why it took me so long to share this news with you...

So let's start at the beginning...we went to our local fair that has lots of rides, games and food. If you could see how wide-eyed Lauren and Kathryn were at all the lights you would think we had taken them to Disney World! They absolutely adore going on the rides and eating all of the food...especially the ice cream! So, I came up with the smart idea of letting them choose between getting ice cream or playing a carnival game where we could win a fish...knowing full well they would choose the fish! So, we paid $5 and got 30 ping pong balls to throw at these mini gold fish bowls strewn all over the table. Keith was mainly throwing the balls and so I thought since we had so many I would give it a shot...and low and behold it went IN!! So, we took home a gold fish...we had no tank...and you see where this is going....so I put it in a flower vase (good idea) and the next morning I go out to buy a fish tank. I did go out the next day but didn't buy a tank because I was confused on what I should be buying so I decided to research it a little more. My research took a little too long because our dear fish, Sunbeam (Lauren named him), passed away. I am not sure if it was the fish bowl or the fact that Keith decided to feed it saltines (we are still debating). We gave the fish a proper burial...I put him in an empty glass baby food container and stuck it in the freezer until Keith came home to bury him. Lauren was a little upset so I promised her we would go to the pet store and buy a tank and two new fish!! Oh, I feel compelled to let you know that they ended up getting the ice cream at the fair after all...Daddy is a softy when it comes to the kids.

The following day we journey out to the pet store which also has an animal rescue section in the store. We load up our cart with all the necessary purchases to keep a fish alive...tank with filter, rocks, couple of plants, food. We were advised to hold off on getting the fish for a least 24 hours so the water would have time to filter through the tank before we added the fish. I love pets so before we leave the store we walked by the adoption section of cats...Lauren becomes smitten with a cat named Tess and so do I. The icing on the cake for me was when Lauren put her little hand on the plexiglass and Tess put her paw up to touch Lauren's hand. She asks me if she could get a cat instead of the fish. I tell her that she needs to talk to Daddy, so she immediately has me dial him up from the cell phone. I was pleasantly surprised when Keith seemed open to the idea and said we will talk about it. So I put all the fish stuff back on the shelves and we headed home to talk about adopting Tess. Keep in mind talk of adopting Tess was occurring a few days prior to Lauren having her umbilical hernia surgery. Lauren asked every day if we could go get Tess...finally (two days after Lauren's surgery) Keith agreed to get the cat. Kathryn, John and I went and met Tess to make sure she would be good with kids and a good fit for our family. I brought Tess home and everyone was happy EXCEPT Keith and I. We quickly realized upon Tess's arrival that we were not cat people and that we would rather have a dog if we were going to put the effort in with a cat. Tess honestly was a terrific cat, as far as cats go, she was great with the kids but it was the litter box issue that we just couldn't shake. We had a really hard time coming to this conclusion but we ultimately decided to return the cat to the rescue. After only a few short days we had all become attached and it saddened us to bring Tess back, but we felt she deserved to be with a family who could love EVERYTHING about her.

Okay, sorry this is so long but I feel like I owe you the explanation...Once we returned the cat Keith and I decided to start searching for an older rescue dog. We contacted several rescues in our area and I kept tabs on all the dogs on a daily basis. I can clearly remember when I found Bodhi. It was Saturday morning, October 3rd. I was enjoying my morning cup of coffee checking out all the rescues and I immediately called Keith over to the computer we both agreed that he looked like the dog for our family and so I submitted our application and crossed my fingers. Because I am a little inpatient after the submitting the application I also wrote a separate e-mail to the rescue about how interested we were in Bodhi. Shelly (the lady at the rescue) and I then swapped a couple of e-mails back and forth and we eventually spoke on the phone. She notified me that they do not normally place dogs in a home with small children, especially with individuals who have never owned a dog...this was my fear all along. However, she understood that we had to start somewhere and she thought we sounded like a good fit for Bodhi. Let me just tell you it was LOVE at first sight with Bodhi. It feels like he has been with our family forever he has just blended in so perfectly with us. He sleeps in our room, does not run out of our yard, he knows hand commands and is just an all around good soul...and he is good for our souls too. Tonight the kids (Bodhi included) and I were driving back from an outing when Lauren announced from the back seat that we have three boys and three girls in our family...what a smart cookie:)...she gets it, he is part of our family!

So with all of that I leave you with these pictures from our first day home...it was a long process to get here but I KNOW we made the right decision.

Lauren Elizabeth

Lauren is our smarty pants, do a little dance, computer using, outdoor loving, kindergarten going five year old.

I can't believe this when I think back on it, but Lauren was successfully using the computer at 2.5 years old. I can clearly remember her sitting at our dining room table in Fairfield and playing on the computer, using the mouse and everything. Now maybe this was because I was taking care of a newborn and needed to find an activity for her or maybe it is because she is a "smarty pants" but when I think about Kathryn using the computer it makes me a little nervous.

Lauren is quiet and reserved when out in a social setting, but do not be fooled...she is taking it all in and she will question me incesentantly when we are alone about things she observed. She has an unbelievable memory...just this morning she told me that she remembered what color our old house was...white....and that she remembered what color the flowers were in the backyard...red!!! I honestly do not know how she remembered this, we moved out of that house a few weeks after her 3rd Birthday, that was two years ago! I had not recently talked about that house or shown her pictures so this is just something she remembered. She has been enjoying socializing with her peers this year and gets excited to see them when we are out and about; it is neat to watch her grow from someone who was literally "stuck to our legs" into someone who will walk up to a classmate and start talking and playing. She LOVES to invite anyone and everyone over to our house to PLAY, she doesn't really get that she should ask me first. She also doesn't understand that she needs to be invited over to someones house, which can make for some awkward situations.

Lauren is a perfectionist when it comes to the detail of her work....if she is writing or coloring and something goes awry she gets upset and feels like she needs to start over. Unfortunately, her need for perfection ends with her work...she is not a (how do I say this nicely) neat person...that is where Kathryn comes into play. Lauren is extremely helpful when it comes to caring for her siblings...she likes to tell me what Kathryn needs and is great at getting herself and Kathryn snacks. She sometimes even prepares Kathryn's favorite breakfast for her (yogurt and blueberries). She loves to hold John, pick him up and carry him around. The other day I was cleaning in the kitchen and John bumped his head and started crying, Lauren immediately scooped him up on her lap and started hugging him and telling him "it's okay".

Watching your child grow up is such an amazing and wonderful journey. I could have never imagined the young girl that Lauren has turned into. I remember holding her as an infant and wondering what the future would hold for her...now I look at her as a little girl and I try to imagine what it will be like and feel like to have a child who is driving, going off to college, falling in love, getting married and having kids of her own...it brings a smile to my face and tears to my eyes.

My head is going to explode!

We have had so much going on the past couple of weeks that my head is still spinning. I will try to fill you in on the important stuff, or at least the stuff that I remember.

Let's start with last weekends festivities. On Friday night, both Keith and I attended a bachelor/bachelorette party for our friends who got married on Sunday. We both traveled seperately to RI since I was coming back that same night and Keith was coming home the following day. We both had a great time hanging out with friends whom we haven't seen for a while.

Saturday...I took Kathryn to her first gymnastics class of this season. I enrolled her in the class for three year olds because I thought she could handle it, and she did AWESOME!! Keith came home from the bachelor party in the afternoon, so I took Lauren out for a special afternoon with Mommy. We went and got pedicures and then we did a little clothes shopping, we are still working on her fall/winter wardrobe. She is so cute, she always wants me to buy her and Kathryn matching outfits...hmmm, wonder where they got that...Dwyer and Molnar twins, maybe!?! We came home around 5:30 and quickly changed into warmer clothes and headed out to the Guilford Fair. The girls and Keith kept busy running from one ride to the next while John and I followed closely behind. We got home around 9:30 and I think everyone went to bed by 10pm (Keith and I included)!

Sunday... Keith and I went to a wedding while the kids stayed home with my parents. The weather was absolutely perfect which isn't always the case for the middle of September. The ceremony was on the beach and the reception was outside under tents and we had a great time...although we stayed out a little later than we had planned and I think I am still paying for it. It's hard to catch up on your sleep in this house...and you will see why once your done reading this post.

Monday...I had my interview at Yale to become a volunteer in the hospital. I am hoping to volunteer on the pediatrics floor working with newborn to three year olds. They only have 15 spots available so I am hoping one of their openings can work with my day and time availability. I am also hoping to get all my paperwork back before all the slots are filled.

Tuesday...I went to get my TB test done as well as have blood work run to make sure that I was vaccinated for measles, mumps, rubella, chicken pox, etc...My children, as always, were perfectly behaved and did not cause any disturbances in the waiting room or doctors office...holding an almost 12 month old while you are getting a shot and having blood drawn is an interesting scenario considering he is very strong and wants to touch, pull and grab anything that comes within his radius.

Wednesday...I picked Lauren up at school so that she could go on a tour of the pediatric surgery center. She learned about all the things she was going to see and do the following day. She did great, she answered all the questions and actually seemed excited about the whole thing....UNTIL it was bedtime and then she broke down and decided she didn't want surgery after all. My heart was breaking but I knew that in the long run it was going to be best to go ahead and have her surgery now rather than wait until she was ready. I thought the Child Life Coordinator did a phenomenal job going over and explaining everything to Lauren. She learned how she was going to put a mask on and blow up a balloon, she even got to pick out what scent she wanted to smell in the mask...strawberry, in case you were wondering.

Thursday was a looooonnnnnng day, we had to be at the hospital at 6:30am for our 7:30am surgery time. Lauren chose Daddy to take her back to the operating room, which I was secretly thankful for because they told us what we could expect to see and just hearing the description made me tear-up. Keith handled everything magically, keeping himself and Lauren very composed. Meanwhile I gave a wave as my eyes welled up with tears and told her to "have fun" because I wasn't sure what else to say. Keith and I started to get a little antsy when an hour had passed and no one had come to see us yet, but just as these feelings were starting to overwhelm us Dr. T appeared...perfect timing! He told us everything went well and that we could go see her in recovery. While I was relieved that surgery went well the recovery process didn't start off all that smoothly, lots of thrashing around and the pain seemed to overwhelm her. After about four injections of medicine into her IV, three popsicles (2 purple and 1 orange), a dosage of Tylenol, a movie and a pair of princess shoes she seemed to settle down. Then she began asking if she could go home, it seemed like she asked this question every other minute. The nurse finally gave us the green light after about 1.5 hours. We had a hard time keeping the pain under control especially since she claims to HATE every flavor of Tylenol! We finally switched to Motrin and things have been going much better. She started to walk around this afternoon which I am really pleased to see...because I was convinced that she was never going to touch her feet to the floor again after a little episode we had in the bathroom yesterday...I tried to stand her up to pull her pants up and she decided right then and there that she wanted nothing to do with me and that I was the meanest person on the face of this earth...so glad we are past that.

Today...I took John to the eye doctor for his three week follow up appointment and I found out that we need to start patching his right eye again....oh my, this information was more than I could handle at the moment and the water works got turned right back on. I fear that we may be heading towards another operation since his left eye is pulling inwards again. It is very typical for patients to need a second operation for this procedure so I shouldn't be all that upset or surprised, but still just another "thing" to think about. When we had to do the patching with John earlier on he tolerated it fairly well...not so much today. He ripped the first patch off and when I finally got the second patch secured he grabbed at it and cried the whole hour he had to wear it. I am really hoping he gets used to it. Keith had a good idea, he thinks we should try to put him in his high chair after we get the patch on and give him his beloved CHEERIOS!! I have never seen a child shovel cheerios into their mouth the way John does...simply amazing. John will be going back to the doctor in a month to see what kind of progress we are making. I am going to check with my cousin Holly who is a physical therapist to see if she has any exercises I can do with him to work on strengthening his left eye.

So in the midst of this crazy busy week I decided to start going through all our baby stuff and I am trying to sell things on ebay and craigslist....feels good to clear out those bulky toys but it is a task to get everything cleaned up, photographed and then write descriptions. So far I have only sold one thing on craigslist and one thing on ebay. I am a little discouraged since I thought these used toys would be "flying off the shelves" so to speak with the economy being the way it is. I thought people would be buying things used instead of full priced but what I am realizing is that people just aren't buying!! I think I may be bringing some of the bigger things to a local consignment store if things don't take in a few weeks.

Keith continues to also be moving at a frantic pace at work with meetings, presentations and dinners. The new website that he redesigned was supposed to launch this week but of course things have been pushed back and the new launch date is November 1st. So I think he will not have too many "slow" days until the new site is up and running. He continues to get lots of praise from his peers and executives at his company...it is about time people realize how AWESOME he is!

Oh, and if you are wondering what Kathryn was doing during all this, she was being dragged here, there, and everywhere. She has been handling all this commotion pretty well. I think things may have caught up with her today because she was acting out and being unusually fussy. I think she is sensing that a lot of my attention was elsewhere. Keith was able to give her some extra attention tonight when he got home, they went for a nice walk and she had hot chocolate when she got home and she was as happy as a clam.

I think we may have something else up our sleeves for next week...but that little tidbit is just going to have to wait until next week :)!

Have a great weekend!
Love,



P.S. I think I have given you enough reading material this week, it just didn't come in the daily posts that I was hoping for.

John Logan

John is our teething, standing, clapping, always smiling ALMOST one year old!!

Wow! how time flies. I don't know if it is because he is the third baby or because he is a boy, but he was definitely an easy infant. I know he will probably give us a run for our money in the next few years...well, I do expect him to pay his sisters back for all the abuse. I recently started bathing all three kiddos together and while I was busy washing Kathryn's hair, Lauren was also busy...spraying WATER in John's FACE. I told Lauren he is growing up fast and she better watch out because I fully expect him to retaliate for all those months of being her and Kiki's toy. The age that John is at right now is such an amazing age...he is constantly doing new things, saying new things, eating new things, understanding new things. Here are some interesting tidbits about John...only remember some of these because these milestones fell on important dates...

Rolled over for the first time on...March 26th (Kendall's Birthday)
He got his first tooth on...May 25th (Memorial Day)
Started crawling on...August 8th
Pulled himself up to a standing position on...September 11th


Born...October 28th, 2008
At...11:20am
Weighing...7lbs 3oz.
Length...20 inches



Things I remember about his birth are that it didn't start on time (scheduled c-section) and that it took a very long time...2.5 hours in the operating room...I heard the Dr. say at one point "so, now what do you think we should do?" I was so exhausted from the anesthesia and lack of sleep from anticipation the night before that I actually felt like sleeping in the operating room...kind of odd, I know. It was such a wonderfully awesome feeling to actually be able to see my baby and have Keith cut the cord and hold John right next to me. Both Lauren and Kathryn were whisked out of the room fairly quickly after their births...with Lauren I had to wait three days before I held her for the first time and with Kathryn it was almost twelve hours. I was able to hold John for the first time while they were wheeling me down the hall from the operating room into recovery...I had never done that before and felt like I was doing something I shouldn't have been doing...but it was actually the RIGHT thing to be doing!!

John has definitely completed our family. He is a true joy to be around...he can light up a room with his presence and bring a smile to every ones face!

Kathryn Paige

Kathryn is our outgoing, thumb sucking, blankie loving, loud talking, juice chugging, vegetable eating, potty trained 2.5 year old daughter.
















She can often be seen walking around our house with her blankie draped over her head like a little nun. The blanket and thumb attachment is something that is very new to us since Lauren, our oldest daughter, never sucked her thumb or had a possession that she was overly attached to. Blankie can work wonders when Kathryn is either hurt or upset...it is able to stop the tears even when I cannot. I try to limit where blankie goes...it generally does NOT leave the house, unless we are traveling or she is overly out of sorts.

Kathryn enjoys dancing and gymnastics. Keith recently taught her to take a bough after she is done twirling around and around. She places one hand on her stomach and bends that tiny body in half so that her head is almost touching the floor and says "thank you"....it is so darn cute! Oh, and you should see Kiki run, she high-steps it like nobodies business all over the neighborhood. She really enjoys looking at books and she makes up little stories as she is flipping through the pages...she can actually (much to our dismay) be heard "reading" her books until well after bedtime...luckily Lauren is a heavy sleeper.

Kathryn brings a lot of laughter into our household...she is a lot like her Daddy in her stature and personality so I know she will grow into an amazing little girl and woman!

Good Company + Good Martinis = Good Times

Okay, we will start with the company first....we had the pleasure of hosting my Aunt Nancy for a visit this past weekend. We LOVED having her here for several different reasons...(in no particular order)...the girls would wake her up in the morning instead of us, she provided us with some great "late" night conversations, she has great insight on life, love and raising a family and most of all we just straight out enjoyed having her in our home.

Next, the good martinis....yummy. My all time favorite martini is of the pomegranate variety. This martini is so smooth and tasty you hardly know it has alcohol in it and it is pretty healthy for you too...pomegranate juice is loaded with antioxidants! Here is how I make mine...

1 1/2 cups pomegranate juice

2 ounces vodka

1 ounce cointreau
(this recipe makes enough for two martinis)

The good times were shared by many...my Mom, Dad, Jason, Maura and Gavin came over for dinner on Saturday night. The kids played outside and jumped in the leaves, the guys drank beers while the girls had martinis and we feasted on a delicious meal prepared by my Mom and Dad.


Cheers!