Happy Birthday, Felice!

We hope you have a wonderful birthday! Cheers!
The G Family(Stone Harbor Vacation- 2007)

Happy 4th Birthday, Maddie!

A very HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY to you, MADDIE!!
(Maddie & Ava- Avalon Vacation 2008)

Daddy Cam

(via Daddy's lens)

Happy Memorial Day

What a lovely day! So lovely, in fact, we had a BBQ with the family.
Gram & Papa, Nana, Uncle Tony, Uncle Joey & Caitlin, me, Chet, Ava & Dean. The immediate "G" clan. It was really nice. We hung outside for hours, drank too many pitchers of sangria, and ate too much. Good times.

It's been a very busy weekend with all sorts of activities, projects and excursions. On Friday, Chet and I decided we wanted to purchase one of those patio gazebos. You know the kind with the screens? Our deck gets full sun and we really need some shade for ourselves and the little ones. Good idea. Good project. Great!

A few hours later Chet informed me that he wanted to strip the deck and stain it before he puts up the gazebo. OK- that sounds great. But, how can that be accomplished before our BBQ on Monday? After all, stain takes 24-48 hours to dry. Hmmm...

Another thing- I had a volunteer event on Saturday that Chet had planned to bring the kids to. And Ava had ballet. Double hmmm....

Ya know- I should know not to question these things. He was right! Our deck was done and the gazebo built before the BBQ! On top of that, he picked up and assembled a conversation set to boot. Great work, babe! It is wonderful, I love it!

Below are pics of the deck progress and the new gazebo. It's amazing what a power washer can do! (thank you Owen) I haven't taken all the best picture angles, but you get the idea.

Also- since I am posting a slideshow, I thought I would include some random pics of the kids. A little birdie told me I've been a slacker lately in the photo dept. Oh yeah- the boys pulled the cover off the pool and they are coming to officially "open" it on Wed. Yay!

Great day, great weather, great weekend! Happy Memorial Day!

What is that noise?

Can you hear that? What is that?

Oh wait...I think I know....it's Dean grinding his teeth!!

The little fellas two top teeth broke through. He's discovered that if he mingles these new pearlies with his 3 bottom teeth (that I know of), this is the lovely little noise he can make. It seems he can't resist.

Mommy no likey. It makes my skin crawl.

I hope the novelty wears off quickly!

9 Months Old

Dean Douglas turned 9 months old yesterday! Yup, he's really gettin' up there.

We're coming out of a pretty exciting month between the crawling, and the first tooth. Btw, that first tooth quickly turned into 3 teeth. Ouchy!

Our little man had his 9 month Dr. appt today. You aren't gonna believe the difference in his stats. Dr. P even had to do a double take!

21 pounds- 50th percentile
30 inches- 95th percentile

Well, he's still a long little fella....but, I can't believe he has dropped down from the 90% in weight to the 50%! He eats more than ever. It must be all the new found mobility he's got going on. Speaking of mobility, here's a little video of his beginning crawling that I captured on my camera. (click arrow to play)



Another thing- Dean has had a bout of the sickies this past month, as well. Poor guy. After taking him to the Dr. last week, I think it is finally starting to pass a bit. Who knows, maybe it was all teeth related? Although that cough in the night was not fun to listen too. Unfortunately, now Mommy has a bit of the sickies herself.

Here's another pic of Dean in his new baby swing, with sissy pushing him. (Hey-no fair-Mommy has to pay for those highlights!)

Blog Birthday

Today is my blog birthday! I made my very first post on May 11, 2008.

No signs of stopping. I love to blog. It's been very therapeutic for me in many ways. It's like a scrapbook and a diary. It's a record and a calendar. It's a way to connect with family and friends far away. It's for anyone who is interested. I don't expect people to care about what I write or agree with everything I say. I think we are all more alike than we think. I think we can learn a lot about ourselves and each other.

Interested in starting a blog? Do it!

Playset COMPLETE!

It is with much excitement and pride that I announce that the playset is COMPLETE! I'm very happy with how it all turned out. Chet did a great job! We have one happy little girl over here! YAY!

Happy Mother's Day

To my dear Mother, Sister, Mother-in-law, Grandmother, Nana, cousins, friends, and all mothers reading this. "To the world you might just be one person,
but to one person you might just be the world." -Author Unknown

"Making a decision to have a child--it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body." -Elizabeth Stone

Playset Progress 4

Everything is done, except for the roof and the mulch! Yay!


And the best part*....
*(sadly, please don't expect me to say the same thing about my next car purchase)

Playset Progress 3

Moving right along...

Little Crawler

Dean's a little crawler!

I had my doubts that our little "big" guy would crawl before he walked. Well, I was wrong.

He mastered rolling every which way, spinning around in circles on the floor, and creeping. Then came the tall stance on all fours, and the rocking back and forth.

Today, to our delight, he started his little, raised-up journey. Uh-oh!

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

I spent a portion of my Cinco de Mayo getting bubble gum out of Ava's hair. My first experience with gum removal. Not my first with bubble gum, however.

Good 'ole peanut butter did the trick. Thank you kindly.

That led to bathtime. Which led to group bathtime. Which led to this.

CHEERS!