Christopher and Stacey's Expanding Family

I didn't get to post the shower photos yet, but we had a chance to visit Christopher and Stacey in the hospital after the birth of #2, a boy! not so little Simon Christopher was born on Friday and was working to beat Caed in size at birth! 9lbs 10oz and 22 1/2"! only 5 oz smaller then Caed. We are so happy for the family and we know little M will be a great big sister too!

Dairy Farm

Sally's Family has a couple of farms, and we had the chance of visiting her aunt's Dairy Farm when we were out for her Bridal Shower. Caed took a few minutes but once he warmed up he really enjoyed it. We were out in the sloppy mud and a thunderstorm, but he just kept going to see everything.

In with the calves:

The Calves, and Aunt Betsy:

Auntie Sally and one of the twins. I'll guess this is Kendall?

The calves:

This momma cow deliver about 5 minutes before this picture was taken. Additional gross fact, afterbirth was still apparent on the momma cow too. Amazing to see this so soon after the birth:

I forget the type of cow this was, but it was a really pretty one:

The inside of the barn:

Aunt Betsy loved just watching the mom taking care of her baby:

The piglet:

He was about a week old:

the farm, taken from the house:

The storm above, and the puddles:

More of the farm:

The bunny:

the chick:

Baby Shower #1

Back in May we threw a baby shower for my childhood best friend Becky. She's due in a couple of weeks and it's about time that I got these photos posted! It was back home on Long Island and it was a first for me with Caed and no dad. Luckily another friend was there that could take my camera so I actually ended up with photos. Thanks Kirsten! We had a good time, and it was good to see old friends and celebrate this exciting time in Becky's life! (sorry for so many photos)

Becky and her sister in law Soula:

Three childhood friends kids': (l-r: caed, Caleb and Liam)

Kristin, Becky's sister and almost best friend Debbie:

Party:

Becky and Debbie:

Becky's mom and good friend Debbie:

More party:


Best Friends:

Arlene and her little talk, making everyone laugh, of course:

Party:

Opening gifts:

More gift opening:

Mom and son wrestling:

The cake:

Becky and the Grant family:

Old friends and family:

finally here...

I just wrote a new post and then tried a different way to post my photos and lost the whole post.

In short, we've been busy, and with the nice weather, outside a whole lot more. I've got cute photos to post and will do that.

I've been staying up to date on the blogs I read with a handy google tool on my iGoogle homepage. It's Google reader, and when someone updates their blog it just gives me a little link and pops open only the new post. I don't have to go and click through everyone's site, so it's really great. My friend Katrina told me about it, and I'm sold on it! But now that makes commenting on people's sites a little more difficult because I would have to go all the way through to that...and the reader is already so handy. But I wonder that means for interacting even less on a little interaction blog anyway. I mean, it's already like looking in on someone's life when you read the blogs, but now I can get your recently updated posts and I feel even less inclined to let you know because of this 'shortcut'. I'm not sure if I conveyed my curiousity about that in the right way, but anyway.

Last weekend we took a trip to North of Pittsburgh for my soon to be sister in law's, Sally, Bridal Shower. YAY! We had a great time, and I'm not sure what kind of photos I have the party, if any. But I do have some from a visit to the family dairy farm that we got to take!

Lots of posts to come soon- although we head out on a little vacation soon and will be in and out the next few weeks.

2 Years Old!

(taken from cell phone camera still in the delivery room)

Two years ago today Caed was born about 3:30 in the morning. After hours of labor, we were happy to find out we had a boy and he was happy and healthy! Immediately after his birth he was taken for some extra testing because he was so long and big (22 1/2" and 9lbs 15oz!) but he turned out to just be a big kid! Not surprising if you know either side of his family. :)

He was amazingly alert from the first time I saw him, and is that way since then. My mom describes it that he wanted to know what was going on around him and why he was trapped in such a limiting body! We didn't know exactly what we were in store for when we took him home- but it's been amazing since!

To celebrate his birthday family came in from out of town for Sunday. We all went on a duck tour here in DC and enjoyed it so much. We had ice cream cake a day early. Today we had his two year doctor appt. and then tonight, his actual birthday, we had a quick dinner and celebrated with friends and with some cupcakes. Caed also celebrated this afternoon with a two hour nap time delay. Fun Stuff.

Sunday's Celebrations:

With Auntie Heather on the Duck Tour:

With the Duck whistles. a fun souvenir!

Monday's celebration:

Lots of chocolate!

Old Friends

Memorial Day weekend my youth pastor from my childhood was in town. Pete married us and his wife Cheryl played the music at the ceremony. Their daughter was my younger sister's age and they were friends. Pete and Jon happen to be very close in height, so Jon appreciated being able to talk to someone at his height! Looking at the photo reminds me of how tall Jon really is (he's 6'6") in comparison to Pete (6'8").

I had forgotten they would be here, and since they were with family I didn't think there would be time to see them anyhow. Well on Sunday morning I got a text on my cell phone and it was Pete. He and his family would be able to see us if we could meet up with them. So we got in the car to go see them for the two hour window we had. His daughter and family were with them too. It was so great to have a little relaxed time with them here in DC. Usually our time back home in Northport is spent swirling around to visit all our old friends (they all seem to still be there!). We felt especially privileged to have a chance for Pete's grandson and Caed to spend a little time together too. They briefly were both out of the stroller, and they ran with each other, ignored their parents and laughed too. What a treat.

Carnival!

Back in May before I arrived in NY, I stopped at my sister's home in PA. We went to the town carnival the night we were there, and we had a great time. It was a first for Caed! Caed actually rode the rides too! He loved all the ones he was allowed on (there were some that were fudged!) and did great holding on while on the faster ones too. Unfortunately I don't have much of Caed on the rides in this post, I loaded the pictures on differently this time, I've actuallyot to rotate them first. So rather then wait to get them on this post, I'll just do a second one. The whole K clan was there and it was so much fun, I can't say it enough! Thank you Uncle Jerry and Auntie Heather for so much fun!

Aden, Heather and Chantz


We were all on this train ride, that was actually closed the first bit we were there because of a huge fire they had from the generator. Luckily for Caed, they re-opened it. Is there something extremely scary about fairs like this?

The older boys on a spinning ride- Chantz rode every ride!

Self Portrait

Olivia on the cars, what fun!

In the dark!

This past week we had no power for two days. On Wednesday we had storms come through, and we made it through them. I went out for a run on Thursday morning and came back to my neighbors talking about the electricity being off. It was a hot day. My loving sister Kik suggested buying a fan.....unfortunately that doesn't work without the electricity! It made me chuckle though. Friday morning I got out to keep us cool, and keep mom and son happy. Finally at 3 am the electricity came back Saturday morning. Luckily, my wonderful sister April came over the night before to install the AC's in the windows (in the dark, nonetheless!) So we promptly but the air on when we could. It was an even hotter day on Saturday, so we felt really thankful.

Tonight I am still thankful I can turn on the light in the bathroom again! It's amazing how much you realize you need electricity when you can't use it!