Devin smiles :)

We've been out of town again...go figure huh :) So I have a lot more to post about, but in the limited time I have at the moment, I wanted to post some pictures of Devin smiling. It's awesome! You hear mom's talk about it all the time, how rewarding it is when they finally get it and smile-and it's so true! It's almost a reassurance that you're doing a good job...haha. He started getting his first smiles in about 3 weeks ago, but now it's a lot more frequent, and I can really get some on film. So I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

Fun Weekend

Sorry it's been awhile since I've been able to post something. We've been busy these past few days-and it's been fun :) I sent the boys home to our parents Friday afternoon, and then Micah and I had a weekend all to ourselves! It's been a long time since we have spent that much time alone together-with no work-and we took full advantage of it :)

One would think that since I didn't have the boys, especially Devin, that I would catch up on some sleep. Well, one would be wrong! Friday Micah went on a long bike ride while I was dropping the boys off, and then we went out to a really nice dinner. When we came home, we noticed our neighbors behind us were having a little party for their daughter and her friends, but was going to end soon. They invited us to come over after the kids left-and we were there till about 4:30 am! We were enjoying beverages, playing darts, and just getting to know each other better. It was a ton of fun-a much needed realease with no responsibilites. Then Saturday we got up fairly early and went to see a movie in the afternoon. Afterwards we went to play golf (my first round ever!) and then out to dinner with some friends of ours. Guess where we went after we got home? Yup, you guessed it-back to our neighbors for round 2 :) This time we were only there till 1:30 am. We got up early and went to church and then came home to clean up the house and pack up. Micah was to leave for Hawaii first thing Monday morning (to be at the airport around 4:30) so we were planning on getting a hotel in town for Sunday night. When we got into town we had dinner with another friend of ours, and then it was off to bed. Got up early, dropped Micah off and then headed off to my Mom's. The boys and I finally got back home late last night-and here I am.

So yeah, Micah is in Hawaii to present some of his research at a conference-what a bad gig huh? Must be nice :) He's having a great time I'm sure, but misses us. He keeps telling me that all he sees are honeymooners and families. But still-how do you get better than Hawaii? :)

Well, here are a few pictures I took these past few weeks. I'll get more posted soon!

Here we are at an festival in my hometown

Aiden and Hilary in a maze

Aiden doing his favorite thing in the world-jumpy jumpy!

love that face :)

3..2..1..Blast Off!

Papa built Aiden a rocket :) And so we went down to the church where they had a lot of space and set it off. Aiden was a little apprehensive on how loud it was going to be, but it was fine. The video speaks for itself!

Where is it?

We found it! It was about 5 feet from the corn field ;) haha



Let's try this one more time...

Aiden is showing Papa where the rocket should go this time. And this time, Aiden did push the switch and watched the rocket go up. He can't wait to build the next one with Papa :)

Cousins

We had a terrific time staying with my cousins while Micah took his boards a little bit ago. Like I mentioned before, I couldn't get over how big their kids were getting! Dillon is their oldest, followed by Chloe, Shannon, and finally little Kara born just six weeks before Devin. To give you an idea, Dillon and Chloe were one of our flower girls and ring bearers in our wedding (see group photo in Wedding pictures post). And now they are big enough to hold Devin! Here are some really cute photos of the kids: And note how close in size Devin and Kara are! Holy cow Devin, you're supposed to be little like the 3 week old baby you were in these pictures...not the same size as your 9 week old cousin! Oh well-that's my boy :)

Couldn't they be brother/sister in this photo? how cute :)

This is one of our good friends Missy who is a Pediatrics Resident, and we had the chance to visit her as well while we were out there :)

Wedding photos

By popular demand! Yeah, not really :) but it has been requested to post a few wedding pictures. Micah and I were married on New Year's Eve-and it was beautiful. The funny thing was that I was expecting to have snow and cold weather for my wedding, and got a fur-lined cape in preperation. However coats were not needed, as it was 60 degrees on my wedding day! Go figure, but at least it was comfortable for everyone to go outside for the fireworks Dan and AJ had suprised us with. (I told you he has been doing fireworks for years...but they did hire a professional for the wedding-and it was awesome!) Unfortunately we don't have any photos of the fireworks, but have great video of them! But here are some other photos from the wedding and reception :)

Bachelorette party time!

I love this picture of me and my mom

boys will be boys...

Sadly we were the last event in the church before they closed it, and will tear it down-it was cheaper to renovate the old gym from the school than to restore this gorgeous church. My parents were married here, and it's where we grew up and I'm so happy I was able to be married in there before they closed the doors.

It was so special to have a lot of out of town family come in for us, including Micah's grandparents.

Doesn't Gigi look great? :)

Yup, I still wore my cape-hey I paid good money for that!

Gigi partying it up!

I loved that we had an awesome reception and everyone enjoyed themselves! We even had a lot of people stay to the end for the countdown-keeping the party going!

Now, we weren't completely cheesy in smashing cake into each other's faces...We tried to get it into our best man's face-and I fell in the process! Embarassing yes, but memorable just the same. So we decided to get each other just a bit in the end ;)

Our two families are now one :)

and we're living happily ever after...:)

The Bad Weekend

First off, let me say that it wasn't bad in the fact that we were able to see our families, and Micah was actually with us this time...but everything that could go wrong, seemingly did.

Friday was great. Micah got to go golfing with my parents to help him practice in preparation of a golf outing later in the week. Then we all went out to dinner together with his family, and I ran into a grade school girl friend there! Small world sometimes :) Then bright and early Saturday morning is when the weekend went sour :(

Micah and his parents really enjoy bike riding. I do too-but since I have not been on the bike since before I got pregnant, it was not a good idea for me to go along on their rides quite yet, especially since this one they planned on going for 50 miles. I'm definately not in any shape to do that! Anyhow, Micah and Sandy left super early for their ride. We were going to meet up with them later for breakfast. When they arrived to breakfast, Micah was sporting a badly scraped up and bloody leg. He then informed us that early in the ride he fell down a ravine and was hanging upside down stopped by a tree stump, five feet away from falling head down in water. He had failed to unclip one foot and just tumbled on down. As if that wasn't bad enough, 5 miles later he got a flat. Needless to say they only went 46 miles, not the full 50 because they were running late. He's fine, but it looked nasty and could have been a lot worse.

After breakfast we got ready to go out on the boats. Larry and AJ both have go-fast boats, and we were excited to spend the afternoon on the lake and beach. Sandy was going to stay home with Devin, as he is much too little for the boats yet. As we all took off things were going well, until AJ suddenly stops. One engine had gone out and we spent a considerable time waiting to see if he could get it fixed. No such luck. So he was going to turn around and put put back to the marina while we took off for the beach. At the beach Larry, Aiden, and I got out to play while Micah, Dan, and our friend Josh took off for a little more fun on the boat before getting out to play on the beach with us. They were only going to be gone for a few more minutes, but that turned into over an hour. Larry and I realizing that we both left our cell phones on the boat, asked the people we were visiting if they had a phone so we could call them. Sure enough-one of the engines had basically quit on them too-and they were put putting it back to the marina as well. This couldn't have happened at a worse time for Larry because they were leaving Friday on vacation with the boat-and now it wouldn't be fixed until after they had to leave. Graciously, our friends drove us over to the marina to meet the guys with the boats as they came in. What a bummer that our afternoon of fun, sun, and speed had been cut short.

We decided to stay in that night and play Jokers and Marbles with his parents and relax a little. Of course to add to our luck-Sandy and I lost every game we played. Deciding to turn in to bed, I was exhausted. I had been up every night with Devin, never once asking Micah for help realizing he needed his rest more than I did. However, I was thinking of asking him to take one of the feedings that night because I really was starting to feel run down. I had just gotten Devin back down after his 1am feeding when there was a knock at the door. Sandy poked her head in and said that Dan was at the ER and needed Micah to come in because he had injured his hand. We had no idea what the state of the injury was-just that he needed Micah to come in right away. So now we are all worried, and they all take off leaving me home with the kids. I get a phone call soon after informing me that Dan was lighting off fireworks, (which he has done for years) and one of them had gone off prematurely. They were concerned that he may lose the tip of his ring finger, only time would tell. Of course I was concerned about Dan, and was hoping everything would be ok. But my other thought was, there is no way I'm getting any help with Devin tonight. And with the way Micah's schedule was, I wouldn't have any help for the next 3-4 nights.

They guys didn't get home until 5 the next morning. Obviously plans had changed then for Sunday, and we just layed low the rest of the day. Trying to redeem ourselves, we played a few more games of Jokers and Marbles, of which we lost every one of them-again. We took off for home later that afternoon and hoped that we could put an end to all the bad news. No such luck. I get a call from my mom Monday evening informing me that my sister Hilary had a really bad day. She had gone into work, and her pet rat that she keeps at the office had died over the weekend. Then she had found a home for a cat they rescued, but the guy took her away before she got to say goodbye. And then on her way home she was telling her dog Sadie to get down from the window-and when she looked back to the road there was a car stopped waiting to make a left turn. Hilary plowed into them, engaging her airbags. Sadie was shoved down under the dash. After determining that she wasn't majorly hurt, and the lady in front of her was ok, she ran to help Sadie. She was visibly shaken and then after a few moments took off running. Hilary, freaking out that Sadie was going to get hit by another car tried desperately to call her back. Finally Sadie was caught and under control, but limping a little. Hilary had burns on her arms from the air bag and her nose was a little scraped up. She later took Sadie to the vet and had her checked out. After a few days she seems to be doing better and should be just fine.

Everything happens in 3's right? Well, we had Micah's leg, Dan's hand, and Hilary's accident. The animals were in 3's too-the rat, the cat, and then Sadie the dog. Now that just leaves the boats right? Well, you have AJ's boat, Larry's boat, what's next? Well, on their trip, they took their Bayliner, since the black boat would be unavailable. The bayliner hasn't been run in a few years-so do you really think it will last them the whole time? Not so much! They didn't even make it the first afternoon they put it in before they had to get towed back to the marina! So there is the 3's for the boats :) Luckily it was something that was easily fixed, and the Bayliner is back up and running-we're crossing our fingers that it lasts them the rest of their trip...

Here are some old pictures I have of the boats. I can't find my full length picture of Larry's Black boat-I think it's on Micah's computer, but here are some pics of us a few years ago with Aiden on the boat (it's basically just like AJ's only with a radar arch and back deck). I do have a picture of Dan's hand, but I'm not sure everyone wants to see that!

AJ's boat

On Larry's boat with Aiden when he was about 10 months old

Lauren, Kiki, Aiden, and Hilary chillin out on the boat :)

more of what we've been up to

So, in continuation of what has been going on and why I've been MIA for a bit:
After my visit with our families, the kids and I drove home only to leave again a few hours later with Micah. He had to take his Boards, and unfortunately couldn't schedule them at home. So off we went for a few more days. My cousins, who just had a baby 6 weeks before I had Devin, generously put us up while we were in town. It was so much fun seeing their kids-who are getting so big! And it was great to introduce Devin to them. Aiden had a blast playing with his little cousins, and was so sad when they got to go to school and he couldn't. I had to keep telling him that he would get to go in a few days-but to a 2 1/2 year old, that doesn't mean too much.

So we finally came home again Wed night, and then Micah decided that it was a good weekend to go back home and visit the family-since it had been awhile since he had been home. So we packed up again Friday afternoon to head back to our parent's again. This time we stayed with his family, and that's where the unfortunate weekend began...stay tuned!

Sooooo busy!

Well-I didn't fall off the face of the earth...we've just been on the go go go this past week, it's been crazy. I went home to my parents' house the weekend before last, then we came back to our house only to pick Micah up and leave again out of town for him to take his Boards. Then we came home again for a day and left to go back and visit our parents again for the weekend. We got back home late Sunday night, and this is the first opportunity I've had to post anything! Right now I've just fed and changed Devin and layed him down in our cradle right here, and Aiden has been down for a nap for the past hour or so. Devin is still squirming about, and Boo can wake up at any moment-so I'll try and get a few things posted here with some pictures.

I'll start with the first trip back to my parents house 2 weekends ago. I surprised everyone by going out there Friday afternoon. Micah was on call Thursday night and Sunday night, and needed to study for the Boards. I knew he was going to be no help to me, and us being home would not really benefit him any-so we collectively decided it was a good time to visit the family. The trip down was fine until the last half hour when Devin woke up and decided to scream the rest of the way. My mom was so thrilled to have us there-and honestly I was thrilled to be there and have a little help. I still do everything at night-and it's starting to catch up to me a little. But to have some help during the day is nice, especially since Micah has been so busy :( I know he wishes he could do more, but with the schedule he has to keep, it's not easy.

My sisters and I went to our favorite pierogi place where the very talented ladies still pinch them by hand. They are only open on Fridays and if you don't get there early-forget it. The prune and potato ones are gone! So I was thrilled to eat there, and then we decided to pay our Grandma a visit since I had the kids with me. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera-but I did take some photos with my cell phone. Needless to say, Gigi-which is what we call her for Great-Grandma Helen-was thrilled to see us and her newest great-grandson Devin.

Saturday my mom, sister Lauren, and I went to a local pool with the boys. I had Devin in the stroller with the sun shade up under an umbrella-and he still got a little sun...it must have been while we were feeding him. But it was fun to relax and enjoy some great weather. And Aiden had a good time with his Auntie and Grammy :)

Sunday we went to church and out for breakfast, and then did a little shopping-but didn't end up buying anything...and then on Monday packed up to leave and get Micah and turn around and leave again!
Here are a few pictures from that weekend:

Gigi & Devin :)

Aiden with Auntie Niener

Devin "shade bathing" :) at the pool

And this is just a cute picture of Aiden with his new "paint shirt". It's actually an old work shirt from Papa-and I had to cut the sleeves off! :) It's hilarious on him because it's so big, but hey-at least he should be able to keep the paint off his regular clothes!