Drive-by Blogging.....

Wanna know what we're up to this week?

packing, selling electronics, getting rid of furniture, helping people carry said furniture out of the house, making vet appointments, packing, wrangling the child out of the attic, packing, taking cars to the mechanic, assuring dogs they will move with us, packing, wrangling the child out of boxes, searching for things that were packed prematurely, dodging boxes in the middle of the night, operation "no paci", Halloween festivies, not buying Halloween candy(YET), fighting with our child to eat his meals in his high chair, reassuring the dogs, packing, creating change of address cards, opening a P.O. Box, taking loads of stuff to Pa, packing, stalking our house that is taking AGES to be built, drinking an abundance of wine, using the floor as a dresser, cancelling utilities, wrangling our child out of the trash, writing out MANY checks, home repairs, YES dogs you ARE COMING WITH US, and last but not least.... PACKING!!!

Gotta go... there is a box somewhere that needs to be packed, dogs that need to be reassured, oh and I think a kid that needs to be wrangled!

Monkey Business

Today we did a little photo shoot of Zachary in his monkey costume. It was a blast for Rich and I but Zachary will probably tell the story with words like "torture" and "cruel" when he's able to.

Here is a little Halloween sneak peek!



He even has a little "della" tail :)

Ok, take it off Mom

I think it looks pretty good on me too...

This might be the funniest picture I have of Rich... he's such a poo flinger!

2nd Floor!

We took another trip to PA this past Sunday to take more junk to the storage unit and of course we HAD to visit the house. They put the stairs up this week so we were able to go see the rooms on the 2nd floor! Yay!



View of stairs from the front door


Master bedroom



Master bath



Walk-in closets - kind of hard to see the separation



Spare bedroom






Spare bath


View from upstairs



Stairs

Bedroom 1



Bedroom 2


Bathroom between bedrooms 1 & 2

Hazel Ann Ewing

It is with a sad heart that I write this today. This morning at 2am my grandmother lost her battle with lung cancer, she was 67. She leaves behind a husband, 5 children, 10 grandchildren and 2 great grandchildren. She will be missed tremendously by all of us.

Let's get STATISTICAL!

Ok, I used that word in the wrong context but I'm allowed, it's MY blog!!! Anywaaay, I took Zachary to his new pediatrician today and this is how he measured up...

Height - 34.5 inches (a whopping 2 inch gain in 2 months!)
Weight - 23lbs 14oz

The doctor had to double check his age on his chart because when he walked in he could have sworn he was atleast 2 years old! He said his height makes him look like he's the size of an AVERAGE 2 year old, not even a small 2 year old. EEk.

What can I say?, we breed giants!

He got a couple of shots and took them like a champ. Overall, he's right where he should be for his age and we go back in 3 more months!

We've been yearbooked!

Since Rich left tonight for Orlando I decided to have a little fun on the computer. There is this fun site called http://www.yearbookyourself.com/ where you can upload a picture and see what you would have looked like if you graduated during different years.

Here we are in 1976 (Rich's birth year)

Here is Rich in 1982 (LOL)



















Here I am in 2000 - Stunning - Ha!

Happy 15 Months Zachary!

With all of the hullabaloo happening around here I totally forgot to celebrate my little dude turning another month older on Thursday. He's so close to being a year and a half old already, eek! I can't believe how much this kid has grown, I feel like it was just yesterday we brought him home from the hospital all lumpy and snuggly. Now we have chase after him and beg him for just a tiny little snuggle. *sigh*

Here are a few tid bits about the little dictator:

1. Trash cans are FUN no matter what mommy says about them being "dirty"
2. Floor vents do not actually belong on the floor. They are really for throwing around the house.
3. Swatting at the dogs is an excellent form of exercise. As is chasing them around the house with the popper.
4. Mini bottles of alcohol from behind the bar are for his shaking pleasure. Cocktail anyone?
5. Climbing into his high chair is so EASY, even if it makes mommy have heart failure.
6. Mastering climbing out of the crib WILL be accomplished in a matter of weeks.
7. Dropping to knees and screaming in public is a great way to get attention...who would have thought??
8. "All Done" is the answer to EVERYTHING.
9. He still has the ability to melt mommy and daddy's hearts even when he's broken something valuable or thrown the remote in the toilet - AGAIN!
10. He is the best kid any parent could ask for. We are officially in the land of toddlerhood and loving every minute of it (esp the minutes between 7pm and 7am).

Love you buddy!!!

This gives a little bit of perspective on how big he has grown over the past 15 months:

Virtual Tour of 1st Floor

Today was really productive! First, we took a couple truck loads of stuff up to PA and put it in a storage unit, then we headed over to the new development. We took the contingency off of our new house (BIG WOOHOO) and got to walk-through the 1st floor to see how things are going. The stairs are not installed yet so we weren't able to see the 2nd floor. Everything is still only in the framed stage, no electric, plumbing or heating has been done at this point. Here are some pictures...if you have a good imagination you can really picture the way it's going to look!

Here is Rich. He looks like he needs to use that port-o-potty back there :)




















Garage looking into Family Room














Living Room














Living Room looking into Dining Room














Mud Room off of the Garage looking into Office














Looking into Kitchen from Dining Room















Kitchen & Breakfast Area - the rail in the middle will be the island















Kitchen looking into Family Room

















Backyard - still needs A LOT of work!

It seems like so much work still needs to be done. The Lennar Realtor projected it will be another 8 to 12 weeks until we will settle. So it looks like Christmas in PA might not happen unless they really get in there and bust their butts!

Webers Farm

Carmen and I decided to take the kids to Webers Farm today for some Fall fun, even though it felt like summer! We had a great time letting the kids run around and burn off some energy. There were some animals to see, hay mazes, pedal tractors, and a HUGE slide that almost killed us all! I think my favorite part of the trip was the peanut butter fudge and the apple cider slushi!

Here is Z in the mini-maze. He has NO fear and just takes off without me.















Here are the boys having some fun. Can you spot my little bald pumpkin?














Carmen and Dylan on the slide "of dooom"


















This is just a silly one of Zachary.














Dylan was cracking me up wearing Carmen's sunglasses. It was so sunny!














Dylan pulling Z in the wagon, with a *little* help from Carm.













Weeeeeee, I had sooo much fun on this (ok I was scared out of my mind)














Zachary had a turn pulling his buddy around. HaHa!














Here is where "Mr. No Fear" gets bit by a goat. See how Dylan keeps his distance? Smart!














Ok, why are these goats on a bridge? They were also fighting, I feared one would fall to it's death!














"Here little goat, my finger tastes better than grass!" - Still hasn't learned!

Thanks for inviting us along today Carmen and Dylan!

Motherhood took a turn today...for the worse

So far Zachary has kept the joys of motherhood fairly clean and easy, but today that changed. During his afternoon nap he woke up crying, it sounded like he might be having a nightmare. So I rush in to comfort him and upon entering his room this horrible smell hit me like a ton of bricks. I look in his crib to find my son without a diaper, painted with POOP. I honestly didn't know what to do! I picked him up gingerly and put him on the changing table. Thankfully he was still so sleepy that he didn't thrash about like he usually does and I was able to get majority of the mess off. Then I notice his foot....oh yuck. Into the bathroom we went for a dive in the sink. I got him all clean, stripped down his bedding, put on fresh sheets and prayed he'd go back down for a nap so I could head to the laundry room to de-poop his linens. Yuck, yuck, yuck! Of course I had to call Rich at work to share this lovely adventure with him and all he could do was laugh! Oh, and he also asked if I got pictures of it, sick man!

I am pleased to report that no pictures were taken of this event.

More progress!

I didn't think in just two days the builders would have accomplished too much. Carrie did another drive-by on Saturday to find that we have windows in the house and the beginnings of our porch! The house is really starting to take shape now. We are so excited!! Thanks again Carrie for being our eyes up in PA!

Baptism & Birthday

Saturday we attended the baptism of Kylie Marie. She is the daughter of our friends Lisa and Craig. It was such a beautiful ceremony and Kylie smiled so big when the water was being poured over her. We can't believe how big she has gotten already! Thanks for letting us share in the festivities L & C!

After the baptism we went to Rich's grandmother's 87th birthday party. Her birthday was actually on Monday the 29th of September. Rich's grandmother requested steamed crabs for her birthday dinner and they were yummy!
Happy Birthday Grandmom Tatro!

I forgot my camera so I didn't get any pictures. Boo!

Up on the rooooof

My friend Carrie did a drive-by last night to check on the progress of the house. It was getting dark but she managed to get a picture of the house with it's brand new roof on it! Wow, things are really moving along. Thanks Carrie :)

An evening at the Chisolm's

Atleast this is what it has looked like the last few days. Rich and Zachary started playing this game where they chase one another around the kitchen and living room. Now the minute Rich walks in the door from work he's ready to play. It's too cute! As you can see he doesn't let Rich take a break for even a second before he comes and hands him the popper.

Zoo Boo!

Today was the 1st day of Zoo Boo at the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. This was our second year going to this and Zachary had a blast. He pointed at all of the animals and called them "da" (dog), it was too cute. My favorite part was the baby elephant! Here are some pictures from our trip: