Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Hurray!

Here is Little Dude going down the big slide all by himself!













Here he is pushing a toy in his cute PJ's


Hurray! I am no longer sick! I caught a horrible cold a few weeks ago, and since I am pregnant, I was unable to take any meds....ugh. I had a 102.7 fever!!!! Ack! Anyways, now I am all better and very thankful to finally breath without coughing! lol! The cold got me way behind in my Christmas preparations, and sadly, I have run out of time to do a family picture for our Christmas cards this year. :( Drat! Oh well, so all of you will be getting plain cards this year (if I have your address and know you, of course). I have finally gotten my Christmas shopping done and all the presents wrapped, which is a great relief because I was sure some were going to end up late, but it looks like I will get to mail the last of them tomorrow! Yay!

Here is a picture of Uncle John, William,Me and Little Dude. This was at the park, what a fun day!



Little Dude is loving the Christmas tree and all our lights! He is also doing very well at not pulling things off the tree or getting into the presents, though he has been fascinated with the bows. He is starting to say some words: "Woof" for Eddie, and "Go". He also said "Dada" the other day, but we are not completely sure he meant Bill, but I like to think so. He has also had a great time making friends with our new neighbors and their children...he loves the older boy, who is a year to the day older! They play very well and it is quite cute to watch. I am super excited for when our next little baby gets here!

My pregnancy is going well, and we got a report of a good, strong heartbeat and some fetal movement already...yay! I am due July 14th, but I will bet I'll come early, as Little Dude was 2 weeks early and a very easy delivery. When it comes closer to the time I'll see if I can make a poll on here to guess the due date and the winner can win some kind of prize...I'll look into it and see, it could be very fun!

In the land of work, Dakno is getting lots of cool, new tools to help real estate agents market their site, including acquiring Blogger Lounge and the ability to create customized Wordpress blogs to go along with our customer websites....all very exciting stuff! I am learning more and more about the world of computers and let me just tell you it is all super fun! I feel quite blessed to have the job I do...not many people get to stay home and play with their kids, work at their own pace, and learn new technology skills!

We also want to congratulate our dear friends, Craig and Melissia, as they are finally done with all their pre-adoption paperwork and now are just awaiting their little angel's homecoming! Very exciting; we are keeping our fingers crossed their child gets to come home to them soon!

In other adoption news, the agency I was looking into (adoption ark) has quit doing Lithuania adoptions due to visa problems that have arisen (Im not sure why) However, the lady I have been speaking to said she hopes to get the program up and started again. I hope they do work out whatever glitch there is, but since we are a long way from having the money to adopt and afford for our family to go over together, I supposed I have plenty of time for the issues to be worked out. I really do hope I can have enough money saved to seriously look into adopting in 3 or 4 years.

Well, I suppose that is all of the update I have for now. Once the holidays are over and everything has slowed down, I will get back to updating more regularly.

Monday, December 3, 2007

hieroglyphics

































(We are excited I am pregnant!)

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Finally, birthday pictures are here!

I know it has taken me way to long post pictures from Little Dude's First Birthday! Here they are; enjoy everyone!

Our Family: Bill, Little Dude, Me. We had a most wonderful week at the beach with family, friends and the dogs (they are family too) celebrating Little Dude's first birthday.

All his presents!!!
Playing with his wagon, and destroying his cake!!
I made two cakes, one for him and one for us to all eat. He had so much fun figuring out what to do with the cake!!! Once he tasted it thought, he was all set to eat it. Oh what a wonderful mess!

Monday, November 5, 2007

Halloween pictures!

Hey, everyone! Well, I have a few Halloween pictures to share! I promise to have more, as well as birthday pics, ect, posted by Saturday.

Halloween was SUPER fun! We had Mike, Beth, Julie and John over at the house. I dressed up as a Starbucks Baritsa, Bill was a hockey player, and Little Dude was Mickey Mouse. (Most awesome costume ever, since I once worked at Disney World as the Big Cheese!) We took Little Dude over to see all the neighbors and over to Alan and Andrea's house to visit. Little Dude had so much fun collecting candy in his basket and carrying it around on his arm! This year Bill and I got away with eating the candy, but next year I know he will wise up and want some....
Isn't he cute? His outfit had gloves too, but those did not go over well! OK, I will update more later; time to fix lunch!

Thursday, October 18, 2007

October!

Yay! It is October! Even though it has been crazy hot and crazy dry, the last few days did actually feel like fall! We put up all our Halloween decorations this past weekend, and we have been having tons of fun with the neighborhood kids coming over to see everything. We have talking rocks, light up orange trees, an entire graveyard, a ginormous spider and webbing every where, rats, bats, and skeletons...its awesome. I love Halloween! This year I am going as a Starbucks Barista and Little Dude is going as my bag of coffee. I am busy making his sack outfit (with leg holes so he can walk) and can't wait to take him out with me to a few of the neighbor houses. We also have pumpkins to carve, though we will wait til closer to the big day so they won't go bad. There is a little white one for Little Dude to finger paint too...I'm so excited!

Little Dude is doing great, we had a bit of a stomach bug pass through the house...poor Bill got if first, then Little Dude, then me, then John....I think we are all finally better. Yay!

Little Dude is walking around everywhere and loves to help me out! He will help me put toys away, he will help me sweep the floor (this really makes a bigger mess for me, but it is so cute to see him with the little hand broom brushing the floor!) and he will rub the soap in his hair when I'm washing him...sooooo cute!! I think he is trying to say "dog" or "doggie" (or perhaps "eddie" as that is the name of our dog) Either way, everytime Eddie, or any dog, barks, Little Dude lights up, gets all excited, runs (and I mean RUNS) to the nearest window(I guess to see what the dog is barking at) and yells" oog(pause)eee"!! It is the greatest. He also has broken out the white man dance moves. If we have the radio on, or any music anywhere really, he will stand there, bop his head and bend his knees up and down. It looks like baby headbanging...again, sooooooo CUTE!

In the land of sign language, he is going great! I think he has the "more" sign mixed up with something like, "please, i want that", but it still works. He can tell me if he is thristy for milk or water, hungry, if he wants something, and cheerios. We are doing a circle with our hands (letter "O" sign) for cheerios, since I don't know the ASL sign. Very fun!

Monday, September 17, 2007

It's Fun to be ONE!!!

Well, a ton of stuff has been going on lately! In recent news, Little Dude turned ONE on the 4th! Crazy! This has been the fastest year of my life! I will have pictures of the awesome birthday celebration posted soon!

Little Dude is starting to walk everywhere and is suddenly becoming very independent...we had a melt down at breakfast when I tried to feed him applesauce....he wanted to do it himself. So, I decided to let him. He had SOOOO MUCH FUN using his spoon. He also made the BIGGEST MESS I have very seen. It took forever to clean, but seeing him feed himself was priceless and well worth it.

My brother in law, Fab, won the Raleigh art contest (I don't know if that was actually the name of the contest) for designing a mural to be on a city bus. So, on the 22nd of this month we get to go downtown to see the unveiling of his design, and if you guys see any buses with murals on them, then you know it was by my now semi famous brother in law, Fab! Cool, eh?

We spent a fun week at the beach with the whole family and some friends and Little Dude LOVED the water..he became even braver than last time and would try to get in the waves.....he just laughed when they crashed around him! I think I have a future swimmer! Our beach house had a pool too, so on days the waves were to rough, we would swim with him in the pool. He loved it.

Our friends, Joey and Cat, got married last week. Yay! Joey and I used to be college roommates, and now Joey and Bill work together (and they have been great friends for a super long time through college too!) Their wedding was so pretty and super fun too! Again, I will work on getting pictures posted soon. I know, I am horrible at getting pictures off my camera and onto the home computer.

And in GREAT news, NC STATE won a game! YAY! I was getting worried for a bit. We took Little Dude to the game and he had so much fun! The couple that have lifetime rights in front of us have an 18 month old girl, so we had fun talking about the kids and letting them "talk" to each other. Little Dude loved the entire game and he was so well behaved that we stayed the whole game. He got so excited and clapped when we would clap....so cute! AGAIN....pictures to come.....

Well, I guess that is all the update I have for now! Take care!

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Alan and Andrea's Wedding!!

Our awesome friends, Alan and Andrea became Mr. and Mrs. on Aug. 11th!! I finally have a picture I can share with you thanks to our friend and photographer, Karen! Here it is:




The happy couple had a beautiful outdoor wedding in their new back yard (which, lucky for us, is in our neighborhood!!) with all of us friends and family there to celebrate. I'm telling you, it was the most lovely, intimate wedding I have ever been to (and I have been to a lot). Way to go guys!

Alan and Andrea met online back when they were in high school....10 years ago! Isn't that just the most adorable story ever? Andrea moved out here from Oklahoma about 3 years ago and they are the GREATEST couple. We are sooo glad you came out here, because Andrea, you have become one of my best friends! Congratulations!!!

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Little Dude is Walking All By Himself!!

Well we had our friends, Mike and Beth (who are also expecting their first baby in April!!) over for dinner last night and Little Dude decided it was the perfect time to show off how he has been taking steps. For weeks now he has been taking a step here, a step there, but last night, with Mike, Beth, Bill and me cheering him on he got all the way to 6 steps in a row!! YAYAYAYAY! It was so much fun to watch him working at balancing. My little baby isn't so little anymore.

As of this morning he refuses to hold on to anything and just keeps trying to take steps. His "walking" has slowed him down for a short bit, but I know once he has it down he will start running again, only now I won't be able to count on him stopping when the furniture or wall stops...uh oh! hahah!

On the teeth frontier, Little Dude now has 6! I think the two side lower ones (nice description, I know) are coming in, so we will see! I am now having lots of fun brushing his teeth at night and he really does seem to like it. It probably feels good against his gums where he is cutting teeth still. Bill says I am a little obsessive about brushing his teeth; however, I am a child that had baby bottle tooth decay and trust me it is not fun. I have nursed Little Dude up until he bit me again last week....his second offense was the third strike...lol...so he is now done nursing (which we were down to just one nursing at night anyway.) So now at night before bed he gets a bath, a bottle, teeth brushed, story time and put him to bed. So far the routine is working OK, he cries for a bit, but for the most part will go to bed pretty quickly.

Little Dude has also gotten very curious about how things work and work together...he has a blast putting the cap on a water bottle and it will entertain him for a LOOOONNNNGGG time. Which is nice, but I also have to sit and watch him to make sure he doesn't start putting the cap in his mouth. I need to find something that works the same way but with a slightly bigger cap, so he can still hold it easily, but not get it in his mouth. If you guys think of anything, let me know.

Dakno is going great and I am learning tons about the Real Estate field and Web Design. You guys should check out our website Some of it is still under construction, but I think you will enjoy seeing what I do! And the new look is really sophisticated! I had originally been thinking I would go back to teaching pre-school once Little Dude got into school himself, but now I am reconsidering. I am learning so much by working at Dakno and it is really fun work too! We do web design and hosting for all kinds of websites, but our program is geared towards making a REALTOR'S life easy. Honestly, too, I don't know how any real estate REALTOR can afford to not have a website set up by Dakno Marketing. Our program is amazingly easy for updating and as a REALTOR you could have us do all the busy work updating your listings.

Also, I am just LOVING working from home, making my own hours, and still making enough to buy cool birthday presents for Bill! ( I got him a Wii and a ton of accessories and games with the money I have saved. Let me just say the only way to play a Wii is on our projector!) Now I am saving up for a cool dishwasher. Ours is crazy old and doesn't work so well. I found a great one at Home Depot. The info on it says not to pre-rinse because it wastes water...the dishwasher has its own disposal/food trap and will get all the food off...amazing. No pre-rinsing? It is the Frigidaire FDB2000RFC and I am in love with it. I'm still in love with the Dyson vacuums too, but since they are far more expensive, and I keep finding other items for the house to buy first, it may be a few more months before I get one. Besides, the one I want is the newest Animal model, so if I wait til the 08 model comes out, then perhaps the price will go down? Maybe? We will see.....

Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Our Trip to Texas





Here is my cousin Erika and her new husband, Jim, right after their beautiful ceremony. they have been together 5 years now and just a most wonderful couple. Isn't her dress georgeous?

Her new in laws fell in love with Little Dude so now she is under pressure to have some grand babies. Maybe I'll be going back down for a baby shower soon!







My little sis, Lisa, caught the bouquet!!! She looks so beautiful holding the flowers....kinda like a bride! One of my cousin Kurt's friends caught the garter...his girlfriend was not amused when my Aunt joked he and Lisa had to get married. The two of them thought it was funny though and even shared a dance. Fun times!




Here is Little Dude having "ABC" pancakes I made for him! Aren't they cute? This was the morning we left for our trip to Texas to see my family.




This is my Grandma and me! She is 89 years old and still gets around just fine. I am so proud of her! Also, isn't she just so beautiful? She is 1/2 Navaho Indian and Mexican. None of my friends would ever guess I had any of those genes in me! Haha! I got all the lilly white genes from my Dad's Irish family.

Below is a group picture of my Texas family having fun at Applebees before my cousin's wedding. It was a great way to relax and talk before all the wedding craziness.


Left to right: Grandma (Little Dude's Great-Grandma!!) My cousin Kurt, my sister Lisa, Bill, Me, My Aunt Marla, and my Uncle Bruce. Little Dude is asleep in the carrier at the bottom of the pic, you can see the top of his head. It was soooo wonderful to spend time with everyone and catch up with my cousins. I am hoping I get to go back down soon and do some site seeing with them.











Here is a family pic at the pool of our hotel in Texas. It came out very well even though I was holding the camera! See how Little Dude is pointing at the camer? That is his new favorite thing to do. He loves to point at everything he sees and have us explain it to him. CUTE!!! Also, guys, he is saying Dada and Mama!!! YAY!! I think he also says Yay! But I am not sure if it is Yay, or just a sound like it, but he does use it correctly! SOOOOO exciting! As of Saturday the 11th, he is now standing all by himself! He has been walking/running all around so long as he can hold the wall or furniture, but Saturday he stood up all by himself and didn't have to hold anything to balance! AWESOME!!!


Here is a beautiful picture of Bill and Little Dude playing in the pool at our hotel. In character, Little Dude is about to eat the pool side. Aren't their eyes lovely?

Monday, August 6, 2007

My, time has flown

Well, it is the countdown to Little Dude's first birthday! I can't believe it will be here so soon...this has been the fastest year of my life. Every moment I look at him I am just amazed that I helped bring such a wonderful spirit into the world. So, in 3 weeks my little baby will be a big toddler; the big 1 YEAR. WOW.

In other news, our trip to Texas was wonderful! Little Dude met his great-grandma, who is 89 this year! What a blessing they got to meet and I hope they have many more to come! Erika and Jim's wedding was so much fun and very beautiful as well. I will post pictures as soon as I get them off the laptop.

We have the prospect of moving again....I know, AGAIN....I want to pull my hair out. However, this move comes as a permanent one that includes a huge promotion for Bill and a lovely raise. So, we are debating and might possibly be moving the Orlando, Florida area. It will be sad to leave all our friends and family here in NC, but, of places to move, Orlando is not a terrible choice. We can pretty much live anywhere in central FL since Bill's job involves travel anyway, so as long as the drive to the office isn't to crazy, where ever I choose is cool with him. Nice, eh? We will see though, as I said, it is still up in the air. Though the thought of a house with a pool and season passes to Disney World really is appealing...and the best part is that I can continue my editing job for Dakno! Isn't the internet just amazing?

OK, Little Dude has figured out how to get up stairs...so I am going to go stop him. Talk to you guys later!

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

I have finally posted pictures!

Here is Little Dude eating a lemon...oddly enough, he LOVES lemons and limes...so I guess we will never have to worry about scurvy.
Here is Little Dude standing up all by himself (well, he is holding onto the coffee table, but he did get there all by himself!)
Here is a pic of our tailgate when we went to NASCAR back in May. From left to right, Travis, Joey, Cat, Me, Brandon, and Bill is taking the picture.
Here is Little Dude playing at the park by our house. Little Dude loves playing outside; on this day Bill came home early so he was able to go play with us!
Little Dude is watching some older children play; he LOVES other kids; I think he will be a great big brother.

Here is another NASCAR pic. The race was so fun, esp because of the great friends we went with. We got Little Dude a cute t-shirt from the track, but he will have to grow a little before he can wear it.
We gave Little Dude a haircut back in June, here is the before of his shaggy hair. You can't see it in this pic, but he had big ringlets around the side and back; I just couldn't get him to hold still long enough to get a clear shot, so I gave up and just took this one. I was sad to cut his hair, it suddenly made him seem like a little boy instead of a baby, but Bill was correct, he did look like a girl.
Here is the after! I did quite a good job, don't you think? Now he looks like a little boy, esp with him walking/cruising along the furniture.
Here is my most favorite teacher in the whole world, Dr. Linda Holley. She taught Chaucer and Medieval studies at NC State University. I have the most fun hanging out with her and discussing good books and life in general. Someday I hope I am as intelligent, learned and clever as she is. She is retired and lives on a fabulous farm; Little Dude really enjoyed watching the horses!
We took Little Dude to the beach and he had the most wonderful time! I forgot his hat at home, so Grandpa Ed made one out of a handkerchief...awesome! Doesn't my little guy look like a pirate? Hahah!


Here is a pic of Me and Bill in the stadium at the NASCAR race.


Everything has been going great for us. We are going to Texas for my cousin's wedding this weekend and I can't wait to see everyone! This will be Little Dude's first time meeting his great-grandma so I am all ready with the camera to get great shots! Also, while in Texas, I am going to get to catch up with one of my old Walt Disney World College Program buddies, Frances! I am soooo happy to see her, she was the coolest roomie and we had the most fun making magic at The Walt Disney World Resort and doing crazy stuff around Florida!


Our friends, Sarge and Carma, welcomed their little girl, Nykita Allyn into the world on July 1st! She is the cutest, tiniest baby I have ever seen!! I wish we lived close enough to go visit! Here is a pic of the happy new family:

Aren't they beautiful? This was taken only a week after Nykita was born; she is so adorable! Carma, you look radiant!

Monday, June 25, 2007

Beach Fun

Hi! Well, everything is going very well for us! Little Dude is growing like a weed and doing more and more cool stuff everyday. His latest trick is pointing and things he likes. Esp. overhead fans and lights..he LOVES them! He is also eating all kinds of foods, among his favorites are Thai and Mexican! The only thing we can't get him to eat is corn...I think that is only because he can't chew it so well yet. Other than corn, he will eat anything put in front of him! I'm very proud of my little eater!

This past week I visited my teacher, Dr. Linda Holley, for a fun filled day! Little Dude loved seeing her farm (she has horses!) and her puppy was a big hit! Dr. Holley was my Medieval British Lit teacher, and I tried my hardest to take every class she had before she retired! She is the GREATEST teacher ever and I think her passion for Chaucer rubbed off on me because of how wonderful of a teacher she was! Anyways, I am now going to read Troylis and Cresede (by Chaucer, and no, I don't have to go buy it/check it out because I still have my AWESOME The Riverside Chaucer from college) and go back in a few weeks to discuss the story with her....I am soooo excited! I guess that means I am a dork. I still can't wait to be done reading so I can hear her ideas and thoughts and talk about mine as well.....it is just so fun!! I have pictures, but they are still on the camera...sorry! I know, I will post pictures soon, I am behind.

We also had a fun filled weekend with my in-laws, and again Little Dude LOVED every minute. We all took him to the beach and it was such a blast! We forgot his hat, so Ed made a little bandanna for Little Dude with a handkerchief. The pictures look awesome; Little Dude looks like a pirate! He had the best time at the beach and was not scared of the waves at all! We would sit with him and let the waves come up on the shore and hit his legs; it was like Christmas! Little Dude got SOOOO excited!

My job is going very well and I am loving having the shopping money! I am learning a lot about computer code and website development as well, which is very exciting!

Well, that is all the update for now. I will try to have pictures all uploaded by my next post. Bye!

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Baby Samurai


Hi, all! There has been a lot going on and between getting sick (we have been passing it back and forth) , working and chasing Little Dude, I have just had no time for an update! So, here is a long over due one.

The 7th was my 26th birthday, yay!!!! I suddenly feel more adult, which is fun. Don't worry though, I have tons of kid-like antics just waiting for the right time to cheerfully jump out! Heehee! The family all got together that weekend at the Cheesecake Factory in Raleigh. I LOVE cheesecake and I definitely got my fill over the weekend! You may be wondering about the picture above...yes, that is my little boy as a Samurai, Kung Fu extraordinaire! He was actually playing with two straws, crazily laughing, and standing on a table at the restaurant, but thanks to the amazing skills of my brother-in-law, Fab, Little Dude's funny facial expression has been put to good use by transforming the straws into crazy martial art gear. The head band adds a lot too. And the crazy animae background. Awesome, Fab! So, not only did I have a birthday party at the Cheesecake Factory, but Little Dude used his Kung Fu skills to fight off bad guys who tried to eat my cheesecake....I know, I live an amazing life. Hahahaha!!!!

I have not gotten the pictures from our NASCAR adventure off the laptop and onto my home computer, so I can't post those pictures like I promised, yet. Until I can, you will just have to trust me that it was super fun. I think Bill and I will go back to another one again-maybe next year. We will definitely have to go with our awesome friends Joey, Cat, Travis and Brandon because they made the whole event fabulous and informed us of what size coolers and what to bring in the coolers for the stadium! Having frosty refreshing beverages made everything nice, even in the heat. Next time we will have to sneak some sandwiches in, too! Also, we will have to go to a shorter race. The one we went to in Charlotte was the longest race of the year, and after about 400 miles I'd had my fill of race car fun. Also, at that point the beer ran out....maybe that is why....haha!

Our Friends, Sarge and Carma, are finally off of bed rest now (well, it was only Carma that had to be on bed rest) and just hoping everything keeps going well til their little princess arrives. She is due the end of July, so Carma, you are almost there! Yay! Also, our friends, Nance and Gabe had their little girl in April of this year and named her Ava. I just got pictures, but again, they are on the laptop, so you guys will just have to trust me that she is just the most beautiful little girl....and she looks a lot like Gabe right now, so Gabe, I guess that means you are beautiful! :)

Little Dude is trying to walk and keeps falling....I am amazed he has not gotten bruises all over his face and knees....I guess baby's are just made for the falls that come with walking, eh? He does super well if he can hold the wall or furniture and walk beside it. Anywhere else he falls right away. Earlier today he grabbed his dresser handle and started walking along the dresser. Then, silly me, I told him I was so proud of him practicing his walking, so he looked at me, let go of the dresser and turned to me.......then fell like a TREE. FLAT on his FACE. Ouch. So, now I have made a mental note to not distract him while he is trying to walk unless I am close enough to catch him before he flattens his nose. Amazingly, he didn't get a bruise or anything, even though I was so sure he was going to get a knot on his forehead from where it hit a toy.

I have been spending time trying to save my roses, since I let them go last summer and fall while we were in Oak Ridge, TN. I think I only lost one bush, three have come back strong, and 3 others are kinda struggling, so hopefully after all the work I have been putting out in the yard during these very hot days the 3 struggling ones will be able to bounce back. As a side note, I will just let you know that I love roses and taking care of them; however, I am allergic to their thorns. Yes, their thorns. Not the flowers, I can have them in the house, smell them all day and be fine. BUT, if I get even one scratch or a thorn prick the whole area turns red and itches like crazy. I have never heard of anyone allergic to rose THORNS, but since it happens to me every time, I have decided that I must be. This makes taking care of my roses a challenge which I usually address by just wearing long sleeves, but since it has been so hot lately, I have just put up with the short periods of itching. So there is an odd tid bit about me for you.

Also, in a bit of news I heard on the radio last week, some scientists in Britain (I think, I might be wrong) have found a way to create stem cells from SKIN cells. Isn't that awesome? They have not tested on human skin cells, but it was working on the rats, so it could be a very good possibility.That is very exciting! It would be very cool if that worked out! Also as a side note, anyone who is pregnant can donate their baby's cord blood (which contains stem cells) to research or to helping other children. The one in Raleigh is Carolina Cord Blood and you can also tell your OBGY-N or check at your hospital of choice to see how to go about donating. I donated my little guy's cord blood and it is nice to know that so many stem cells can be salvaged and used to help others while bringing a life into the world-it's like a double gift!

A huge congrats go out to our brother and sister, Fab and Leigh Anne on becoming home owners! Yay!!! They got a super cute, awesome house too....guys, I'm going to be coming over to use the pool...just letting you know....hahah :) Our friends, Alan and Adrea, are actually moving into our neighborhood and they close on their house the end of this month! YAY! We can just walk over and hang out now! Now with two of our college buddies(Alan and Mike) and their awesome wives living in our neighborhood, we have decided to try to talk our other friends into buying here as well....think of how fun it would be!!


Well, I think that is all the update for now. I will work hard to get on more often, but honestly, as long as I have no voice (yes, I am that sick) I think I will just be drinking hot soup and watching Little Dude play.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Our 3rd Anniversary!

Happy 3rd Anniversary to us! I can't believe that today is our 3rd year married! WOW! Each year just seems to get better!

We had a super fun weekend. I will have an update and pictures of our NASCAR adventure later. Let me just say, I have never been a fan of NASCAR; in fact, I would have told you it was pretty boring and stupid. HOWEVER, we had SO MUCH FUN at the race.

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Standing!

Here is an update within my post: I have lost my cell phone. I know, I know, I have looked EVERYWHERE. I really hoped Eddie (our dog) would turn up with it, but alas, I think it is gone. Thank goodness I am able to get a new phone for free from Verizon on the 8th of June (you get a new phone upgrade every 2 years with a full cost rebate; Verizon rocks) BUT I will not have one til then AND I don't have anyone's numbers anymore. So guys, if you could, please call the house or email me to leave me your number. Or call Bill on his cell. Or write a letter to the house with your phone number, haha! At any rate, I need your numbers again! Thanks.

Little Dude is now able to stand up all by himself! WOW. There is now a whole new level of baby proofing to be done! I have no idea where I am going to put all the stuff we have on the coffee table right now....haha! Does anyone have tips for how to keep him from pulling the phone cord and knocking the phone off the wall? I am so scared he is going to hit himself in the head with the receiver!! It has gotten to the point that I just don't let him play on the kitchen floor anymore, but I know once he is walking it will be harder to keep him away.Now I wonder how long it will take him to walk? I am excited he is getting close, but very sad too...he's is not really a baby anymore now that he is standing every chance he gets. I guess I am on my way to mothering toddler hood!


On another note, congrats to Connie and her family at Smockity Frocks! They are expecting a little one! She has a cool little count down going that tells you where the baby is developmentally and how many days til it is due! I can't wait to find out what she is having; shopping for baby gifts is so fun!

Another congrats goes out to my friend, Stephanie from Disney World. She and her husband are expecting a baby too! Yay! Man, I am going to get to do a lot of fun baby shopping here soon!! heehee!

Also, everyone keep their fingers crossed for Sam and Dave over at The Road to Maya, they are next to be matched at their agency and are waiting to hear if Maya is coming home soon! Yay!

Today I started sanding and painting the downstairs area we are finishing in our home. Yes, many of you know we started the whole project 2 years ago, and thankfully got the den side done before Little Dude was born, now we are just working on adding a bathroom, laying down wood flooring and painting...yay! So much to do, but we are almost done! I am quite proud of all the work that has been done. If I find a picture of our our first floor used to look (it is a split entry house) I will put it up here with an "after" pic to show the progress we have made! It looks super nice! After it is done we are throwing a huge party! Super Yay! Also, I am getting ready, after I finish painting down stairs (should be done in a few weeks) to paint the upstairs and the dinning room! YAY! I LOVE working on the house and yard...there is always something crafty I can find to do somewhere! I will work on getting pictures and sharing some of my cost effective home decorating and gardening tips soon. If any of you have tips for around the house, drop a line or share them for "Works for me Wednesdays"! You can see cool "Works for me Wednesdays" tips hosted by Rocks In My Dryer!

I got my info packet from Adoption Ark today too! I was super excited to go through it and read everything about what we would have to do to adopt from Lithuania. I have realized though that there are many children who are 4 -17 that really need homes and that there is virtually no one wanting to adopt them...so I really feel that adoption is something we should do someday, but perhaps do it like 7 or 8 years from now and then adopt an older child, say one that is 6-8 years old. What do you guys think? I know the older children often have been through a lot and have had some sort of abuse done to them...but I think that makes it all the more important to adopt them and try to help. We will see though, I am talking about the future and all of us know that life never quite follows our well laid plans.

My job at Dakno is going very well! I am learning a lot about computer code and how real estate web site hosting works...all very exciting since each site is unique! It is quite fun to learn so much new stuff, get paid and still get to stay home for Little Dude. This morning I worked for 2 hours, played with finger paint and sidewalk chalk with Little Dude, and later, while he took a nap, I worked 2 more hours....what an awesome schedule!

Well, I hope everyone has a super fun memorial holiday weekend! Keep prayers and best wishes for all our soldiers and their families, past and present.

Saturday, May 12, 2007

New pictures!

Here is Little Dude playing in his baby pool! Our friends, Craig and Melissa, got it for him. He LOVES it!

Here we are having dinner with our dear friends. Left to right: Little Dude's head at bottom, Bill, Casper, Joe, Andrea, Justin, Briggs, and Dave. I am behind the camera. :)
I found the wonderful little table and two chairs for Little Dude and he loves it! Now he can have a friend over for snack time! (in the future) Doesn't he look big sitting there?


Here is the fam celebrating John's birthday. Left to right: Bil, John, Granny Patty, Little Dude (in Patty's lap), Abuelo Ed, Fab, Leighanne, Julie, and Me. Happy Birthday, John!!!
Here is Little Dude, Bill, and John at the Red and White football game for NC STATE. Little Dude loved it! We can't wait to have him at the games next season! We already have a small jersey and football for him.
Here is Little Dude wearing a retired NC State football helmet. Doesn't he look great in his sunglasses and helmet? We have a real jersey for him at home too....in a few years I will get another picture of him in the full uniform! Perhaps one day he will be running out onto the field at NC State in uniform!
Here is my angel in our yard.

Here we are at the Science museum in Raleigh. There are a bunch of cool looking fish in the tank behind us, but you can't really see them. The sling I have is awesome for saving my back and arms whenever Little Dude gets tried of being in the stroller; I highly recommend slings over other carriers.


Here is my friend Jessica and her son, Kip. You can see the fish better in their picture. We have play dates every Friday, but since it was raining we spent this Friday at the Science museum. I think the kids loved it; esp. watching all the other bigger kids on school trips. Also, I want to add the museum had an AWESOME nursing room that was very comfortable and private; that was so nice since I am way to modest to try breastfeeding in public.

Thursday, May 10, 2007

A Beautiful Day!

Well, as you guys may know, I have been trying out American Sign Language with my son. Finally, I have some progress to report! After months of endless signing to him, he finally has started to return signs; letting me know what he needs or wants. We started with "more", "eat", "water" and "finished". About 3 weeks ago Little Guy started to do "more" but we were not quite certain he was doing it to receive more food/drink/etc or if it was just him mimicking us and not understanding that he was making a request. Well today I gave him a little of my ice cream and he did "more". So I gave him more. Then he did it again. And again. And then, out of the blue, he requested water! I thought I was going to faint. So I gave him the water and then he did "eat". I was so shocked I just looked at him....and then he made a grunt, and did "more eat" TOGETHER. TO-GETH-ER. Whoa. I now feel a whole new dynamic to our relationship...he suddenly is intelligent enough to let me know what he wants....and when he wants it....now I have to be diligent enough to keep learning more signs myself. You can find out more information about Baby Signs here! There are also tons of great books I have used from your local libraries. One I highly recommend is called Sign With Your Baby by Joseph Garcia. I have been doing signs with Little Dude since he was 3 months old....so anyone that starts, just have patience. I have heard that if you wait til a little later (like 7-9 months) the children have the motor skills in place to quickly pick up the signs so you don't feel like you have been endlessly signing with no results; however, I have had a blast signing. Also, any of you concerned about signing delaying speech, the book I recommend covers that concern. In my experience, signing makes me speak even more to my child, as I describe everything orally while signing. I am having great fun with it all!



Also, I have found the perfect stay at home mom job! Some of you know I was trying to find something to give me an extra hobby to keep me busy, as well as extra shopping money. I tried getting into some kind of editing, but none of my efforts panned out (its hard to prove you could do at home editing worthy of pay when your only post graduation work experiences are teaching preschool and managing for Starbucks). But wait! My brother in law, John, called and said his website company, DAKNO, needed a VA (virtual assistant). So, now I get to work with maintaining websites by updating and inserting computer code where needed and get paid for doing it in my own free time! Also, the pay is AWESOME and my hours are whatever I want them to be. My plan for now is to just work while Little Dude is napping, which will give me a solid 15 hours a week to work...that will be a nice little shopping nest egg!! Heehee! My first item I want to by is a Dyson. I am in love with the one make for picking up animal hair.....I am planning on getting it with my first two paychecks. YIPPEEEE! Though, if anyone has had a bad experience with their Dyson and recommend a different vacuum, let me know. So far from my research, I think the Dyson rocks. Hmm...What does being excited about buying a high power vacuum say about me? That I am suddenly old *gasp* and that I am a clean freak taking on the wonderfully dirty job of MOM. :)

Tuesday, May 8, 2007

I'm Back!

Yay! I have Internet and cable again! For those that don't know, while Bill and I were in Oak Ridge, TN for his work, we canceled unnecessary things (like cable and Internet) back here in Raleigh, NC. So, I just now got around to having it all hooked up again. I am super excited to watch Oprah again. I LOVE Oprah! And I am super excited to get back to all my blogging friends!

Well, new news for us is that I have finally picked out a paint color for the living room and hallway, so that project will be getting underway soon! We are also getting a new roof, so I have been spending time interviewing potential roofers...I think we finally found someone we like, trust, and who has a decent price, so that project will start soon as well! Now my next project is to interview people to replace our windows with those nifty vinyl ones....can you imagine how much easier it will be to clean all the windows in my house? They fold in for easy access to the outside of the window! YAY! I love light and all the windows in our house are huge and great, but SUCH a PAIN to clean....am I too excited to get "easier to clean" windows? I wonder if that means I am old now....hahah!

Little Dude is starting to pull up on stuff, but no steps without help yet. Also, he has figured out how to go from on his tummy to sitting up, a feat he had not mastered til yesterday! Very cool!!


I have been reading some great books lately (I have not updated my reading list yet, I will do that later) on child rearing and adoption. I want to suggest a great one that I just finished and now I have Bill reading. It is called Siblings Without Rivalry I can't think of the authors right now (it's by two women) and Bill has the book in his car, so I will just have to let you guys know about the authors names, but I'm sure you could find the book without their names. Anyways, the book is great for bringing up conflicts that children AND parents create, leading to rivalry. There are great pointers on how to have the children figure out disputes without making one or the other resentful. Wonderful ideas and very quick to read; I highly recommend it. Bill and I are thinking of trying for a second this fall, so we will let you know in a few years if it is working for us. I think it will.

Well, that is all the time I have for today to update, I will do more later.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Moving...again :)

Sleepy Angel. Little Dude is waking up from a nice long nap during our Easter trip to Canton, Ohio! I am already excited to make the trip again sometime next year because I just found out about Stan Hywet (Old English for "hewn stone" that has an ornate oil painting of the Canterbury Tales travelers all around the dinning room....I MUST see it! Oh, yea, and we have family there! (Just kidding; you guys come before a painting of my FAVORITE book....barely...)





OK, so it has been awhile since I posted...sorry! Bill and I are in the process of getting all our stuff back to Raleigh! I want to say I enjoy packing; it is a great way to purge clutter! We will be back home a lot more now that Bill's company is starting a job in Charlotte. Yay! We had a great time this week catching back up with our neighbors!






Anyways, there may be long periods of time between posts while the move is going on; also, we are getting a new roof here soon, so finding a good company for that project will be keeping me busy for a bit! It is also amazing how many different roof colors there are! I am having fun looking at different samples. We are hoping, once we are done with the roof, to get new windows and replace the sliding glass door with a french door....but since we aren't going to go into debt for them, and we don't want to use all our savings, we may just have to put the windows/door off til next year.






In other news I am excited the ban on partial birth abortion was upheld. Hurray for the Supreme Court! YAY!


Also, in other news, I can't believe what happened at Virginia Tech... it is so sad and shocking I don't even know what to say.


In happier news, here are some more pics!!!


1 Here is Little Dude and Grandpa Zeren!! 2 Here he is on Easter playing with our cousins.


3 Playing with Grandpa's toys. 4 Three generations of Zeren men!

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