A great "North Carolina trip" post is on its way but this superhero is super tired and settling in.

Weekends of Fun (Part 2)

Happy Birthday, Sam!!!

And yet another really fun weekend! We feel so spoiled this summer!

Beth Ellen, Keith & our fun & cool nephew, Sam came to spend the weekend with us. We had a packed and fun filled time. We celebrated his birthday (really to come in August) at Aunt Rae & Uncle Bob's with dinner, cake & swimming. He is turning two in August and we just can not believe it!! Just check out how cute he is!

Are those two Holimon kids or what?

We met friends Meg, Brian & lil' Frankie at the Naples Zoo for the grand opening of the leopard exhibit. It was REALLY hot... this summer heat is tooooooo much!

Check out that awesome lion cake that Be made for Samuelito!

We let Zane have at a whole peach and he was in HEAVEN!

Then, we got to visit and have some lunch with Annie & Allan!

Then that was it for the Zane-Man. He was so worn out! He had to cuddle up with his favorite blanket (recognize that one, Nana?) and zonk out!

Well, we are off for 10 days of fun and visiting with family in North Carolina. We will be spending half the time with my brother, Ben, and his girlfriend, Rachael in Boone. Then we are going to Sapphire and hanging out with Zane's Gramps & Grandma and before returning to FL we will stop by and spend a night with our good friends Brian & Aya in Charlotte! We get to see how fun it will be traveling and hauling a 9 month old and all his goods! Good luck to us!

We will check back in on our return or.... maybe I can figure out how to do this when we are traveling!

And for those of you who are not completely bored yet...

Here is just a simple video of our mobile kiddo. He is crawling very fast and pulling himself up on EVERYTHING!! You will see in the video two new cool wood toys (the play cube and the push cart) that I (and with the awesome help of Beth Ellen - thanks Be!) got off of craigslist for $20 each! For those of you out there who know these two toys you will know what a great steal that is! He loves them and just yesterday Paul watched him actually CLIMB to the top of the wooden push cart!! You will notice in the video the wonderful calm play music that Paul provides for Zane. He is such a lucky kid!!

http://my.videoegg.com/video/dzxOeB

Weekends of Fun (Part One)

Last weekend (the 7th & 8th) we had tons of fun in the sun and hangin' with family. First, I went with Paul and Zane to their swim lesson so that I could take some pics and see what it is all about. Zane was a bit tired so he had to get out of the pool before class ended and he was happy to see Mommy waiting for him!

Then, on Sunday we went over to Aunt Margaret & Uncle Chris's house for a birthday celebration for Chris & Lainey. We had incredible food and lots of catch up time! I made a load of brownies to contribute. Rasberry Cheesecake Brownies and Peanut Butter Ganache Brownies. I highly recommend the Peanut Butter ones! They were soooooo good! AND Zane had his first taste of Blueberry Pie made my none other than his Great Gradeaux!

Dinner and lots of brownies.

Lainey & Ruthie / Mimi, Me, Zane and Great Gradeaux

Aunt Margaret & Papa

Zane & Mark / Zane helping Uncle Chris with his gifts.


"Blueberry Pie is soooo good, Baby!"

Awwww! "Auntie Margaret is so fun!"

"Great Gradeaux is the best!"

(Please note that you can click on any picture on this blog to make it bigger)

Just some favorites...

To wrap it up (cause I am sleepyzzzzzzz) I wanted to add some random favorites as of late... more to come probably tomorrow.


Story time with Mommy.


"Whose son are you anyway?"





"Hey, Mr. Tamborine Man play a song for me."


"What happened? I think Daddy put me in this thing backwards!"

Sayonara!

New goodies!

The Zane-Man has outgrown his old tub so we got him a new one. He has a giant duck to bath in now! Doesn't it look fun??!!

Check out the "Disco Duck" video. We also got some crazy cool light-up bath frogs. So now he has his very own Disco Duck Tub!

We also got another package in the mail on Friday!! It was from Zane's Great-Nana and Great Grandpa Jim!! First Zane had to play with the big box which was quite fun. He actually was able to crawl up on to the top of it! (Check out the process of that here!) Then we opened it because I just couldn't wait anymore (Zane didn't understand it when I told him the box wasn't the gift! That was quite a toy for him!) Inside we discovered a ukulele for Zane! He loves it as you can see by the pics! Also, Nana painted a cute plate for our anniversary and a beautiful casserole dish. Thanks so much guys, and Nana, you did such a good job!!

Here are some fun pics of Zane with them when they came to visit back in February...

Up, Up and Away!!

So many fun things to post on so I will probably manage it better by doing it all in a couple posts. We have just been so busy with Paul not working and being home with us and hanging out with family! We have got just too many GREAT pictures to share!

First off, he officially pulled himself up on the coffee table the other day! He has been working on it practically since he started really crawling (about 3 weeks ago) and he has been so frustrated. He still is frustrated because he still can't do it all that well or consistently but it will not be long. Soon he will be cruising the house! He is now comfortable crawling all over the house. He will sometimes try his best to keep up with Paul and me. It just gets him all in a tizzy because he can't keep up!

Happy Fourth of July

As young parents this video struck a cord with us (http://my.videoegg.com/video/dvxQWB). It really displays the true cost of the war. It doesn't just destroy lives, but it also fragments them. What this boy has experienced at such a young age is so incredibly sad and wrong. He has had to feel what it is like to truly miss someone with all your guts and heart until it hurts so far deep down inside of you that you can't even breathe. That is not a feeling that a young child should ever experience.

Our message for this holiday of nationalistic celebration of war, barbecues and cheap beer: "George, you son-of-a-bitch, bring those troops home and put an end to this disgusting war!"

So, happy Fourth of July and I want to add a picture of my brother, Nathan, whom we want to come home safely and quickly. We love you Nate and would love to talk with you soon!

A little something for a little someone on the way...

The last couple weeks I have been busy in my new little sewing corner putting together a shower gift for a friend of mine that I do some part-time work for. This last weekend was the shower so I finally had to pull it all together and thought I would take a couple pics of it all before I passed it on. It is so fun being crafty again! (Thanks to the honey for giving me special chunks of time to do my crafty crafting!)


An embellished onesie and little t-shirt, a crocheted octopus (pattern here), and a bib made out of a fluffy orange towel with a bright yellow sun and yellow edging.


I had this idea for a blanket while I was going through and organizing some clothes for Goodwill. Paul had all sorts of dress shirts and as I was folding them up I had an idea for a baby quilt! This quilt's pattern is made up of Paul's dress shirts! Already being nice and soft material they made a great baby blanket. Needless to say, I now have a stack of dress shirts that are no longer on their way to Goodwill but hopefully one day on their way into a new project! The backing is made of simple soft white flannel.


All put together...
with a copy of one of our favorite books The Baby Book by Sears & Sears tucked in the back!

We can't wait to meet the little one, Chrissy & Kevin!

Patriotic Outbursts with the Justs

This weekend we happily attended the Just's (Meg, Brian & lil' Frankie) annual Fourth of July party. For those of you who know us, you would certainly not describe us as having any sort of "patriotic" bone in our bodies (that is another discussion altogether!), but this party we most certainly adore. It was full of catching up with friends, eating REALLY good food (above is the cake that Meg made with raspberries for stripes and blueberries for stars...and it was YUM!), a little bit of jammin', and some explosions (from which we were happily hiding inside the house). Zane had lots of new friends to check out and he found their little piano and LOVED IT!! We are so getting him his very own soon (check out the video). They put on a mighty good time...




The mighty lil' Frankie!


Frankie's mighty Daddy, Brian.


Our Piano Man... http://my.videoegg.com/video/dvwTeM

Another bonus video of Zane playing in his room the other day and loving a little spinning top. Watch his feet kick every time Paul starts to spin it again...
http://my.videoegg.com/video/dvwTeL

and please note that when 'videoegg' finally gets their act together you will not have to link up to the video. I will be able to put it directly on the page! Hopefully, one day...