77kids by American Eagle Contest

I forgot to mention that the voting starts April 6. Oops.
Also, this is a contest that is posted on 77kids Facebook page. I hope it works for those of you that do not have a Facebook account.....

Thanks again!

Vote for Owen in 77kids by American Eagle's Awesome Kid of the Week Contest!

Vote for Owen! He's in 77kids by American Eagle contest for Awesome Kid of the Week. Just click on the link provided below to vote!! Thanks for your support!

http://bit.ly/gEIzFt

That's Our Girl :)

Yes...She is as tough as she looks.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN 2010

Another Halloween has come and gone. Now all that remains are the decorations that I have to take down in the next day or two and the enormous amount of candy. This year, the kids collected quite a booty. This is something they still aren't used to....being in the old neighborhood we were lucky to get maybe 4 0r 5 porch lights on each block.

The day was filled with excitement and the 6 p.m. start time seemed days away to them. I think they asked us 50 (or 100) times that day, "How much longer?" Of course, we threw in the opportunity to have them figure out the 'math'....it's nice to know that we are still one step ahead of them (wink). As 5:50 arrived they bolted out the door, with me running after them with my camera. Gone are the days of dressing them up, setting up a cute backdrop to take some quality poses for the family. Now I'm lucky if I get the back of their head. So I chased them out of the door and onto the porch. I managed to get them arranged on the porch/steps, turned the camera on and snapped the one and only photo that I got of them 'posing'....suffice to say, I'm pretty impressed with my result.

This year, I stayed back and handed out the candy. The wave of kids coming through was really great and each neighbor would stop and chat for a bit before they moved on. We even had a "Trick-or-Beer" cooler out at the end, so that the grown-ups were not forgotten. They appreciated the extra attention to 'detail'. It was nice to sit by the fire pit, sipping warm apple cider and just looking around at what an incredible neighborhood this is. I had one of those 'pinch me' moments.

The kids finally filed in around 8:30 @ the Whalen's house to do their annual candy swap, before heading home for the evening...pillowcases thrown over their backs like Santa Claus. Brad told me that Brendan ran from house to house, the entire time. He has a buddy that ran with him, one of Owen's friends that just adores him. I guess they were two houses ahead of the group. Brendan didn't want to ride in the wagon, he didn't want any help with his bucket and when his bucket needed to be emptied, it had to be pried from his hands. It was really neat to see how excited he was and frustrating to try and explain that 'no, you can't have another candy bar.'

All in all, it was a wonderful Halloween. Our first 'official' Halloween in the neighborhood, the first time we got to decorate our new home and nearly the end of the first year of us living here. We look forward to many, many more years of celebrations with our friends in the neighborhood.

Mr. B is Two!

Brendan at 1 and 2 years old.

March 27th we celebrated Mr. B's 2nd Birthday. It is so difficult to believe that it has been two years since we first brought him home. He still is amazing...even in his 'terrible twos'. If this is terrible, I think we'll be okay. We've seen worse (not naming any names..wink wink, nudge nudge). We really had a great time and appreciated all of the thoughtful gifts that he received. He's been in love with everything!

So, yet another year has gone. We just hang onto every moment with him because we want to remember everything. Every little silly word "McQueem"..."Dater"..."cereal-kind" (when he wants a particular 'kind' of cereal). Every little saying he's picked up along the way, "Awwwwe Shoooot", "Watch this, watch this!" We want to remember it all. It seems so long ago that Owen was this age...and sadly, some of those memories fade.

Here's to another year of B just being wonderful and being our angel. He smoothed out a lot of the rough edges in our life and has made every moment even brighter. Mommy and Daddy love you, Mr. B. Happy 2nd Birthday!!

So there is roughly 11 hours and 28 minutes until we close...roughly

It is literally the final hours before we close on the house. It was sooooo difficult to leave yesterday after the final walk-through. We threatened the builder that we weren't leaving and just might be 'squatters' until noon on Friday. He just laughed at our silliness and we were like, "no, really." Everything looks good, just a few minor cosmetic things...oh and a few fixtures that didn't come in yet so we're stuck with some pretty fancy polished brass ones. Luckily they are in the closets and at this point, whatever they have to put up right now just to get the certificate of occupancy, we're fine with. I guess that is par for the course in the neighborhood, as pretty much everyone we've talked to went into their new home sans a few fixtures.

As of now, we have one more night in the apartment. One more night. We told the kids before bed tonight that the quicker they fell asleep, the quicker tomorrow would come....it worked. They've been real troopers through all of this and to see their excitement about a whole new world that is about to open up to them is truly priceless.

For now, we leave you with a few more pics before we move in officially. We hope to see everyone soon and please, come by and visit. We'll be sure to have a cold beer/glass of wine ready for you.

It's the Final Countdown --

We have 10 days left. Ten days until we can finally call the house on Daria Circle 'home'. It really did go by fast, a lot faster than we thought it would. So we continue to cross off each day on our countdown calendar, knowing that we only have one more weekend in this apartment. Only two more weeks of having to park one building down because when I get home from work at midnight, there are no more parking spots by our building! Two more weeks of lugging groceries up the stairs and doing laundry out of a closet, while leaning over the garbage can and returnables. It is going to feel like pure heaven to be back in a house. We found out that our neighbors are closing on the 12th, but moving in the same weekend we are (the 20th - 22nd). It's funny how when you're childless (like our neighbors), you take the time in your new home to put up the ceiling fans and get some things taken care of before you move in. When you are a family of 5 in a 3 bedroom apartment, you show up to closing with the van packed to the gills! We're busting out the inflatable mattresses folks! The Nester Family will be sleeping in our new digs as of the 20th.....whatever it takes!! You can go ahead and call us crazy.....yep, we are and so what.

Brad 'measuring' for the mirrors we're going to install. We were wondering how much you like the outlet that they decided to just place through the mirror. Why move an outlet when you can just cut a hole in a mirror?? Wow. They'll be fixing that!

The only thing left to install is the cooktop. This is definitely a dream kitchen for me. Brad is even in awe of it. There will be many meals and treats made in this kitchen. Can't wait to do Christmas cookies this year!!

Looking forward to some relaxation.....